


Bionicle: Destined Downfall (Part Two)

by AchsaP



Category: Bionicle - All Media Types
Genre: Brotherhood, Comrades in Arms, Danger, Darkness, Destiny, Duty, Epic, Epic Battles, Fate & Destiny, Final Battle, Gen, Good versus Evil, Human, Retelling, elemental powers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-27
Updated: 2020-07-30
Packaged: 2021-03-05 21:47:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 49,245
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25542319
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AchsaP/pseuds/AchsaP
Summary: As the lines between light and darkness begin to blur, it's a race against time as the Toa Nuva draw closer to awakening the Great Spirit Mata Nui. Even as new enemies arise, and new allies join the fight, doubt and uncertainty cloud the future. The Toa must put their faith in the three virtues and each other, but will it be enough to bring life back to their universe?
Comments: 2
Kudos: 1





	1. World Tour

The Toa Nuva approached the vast fortress that made the Piraka’s stronghold look like a dirt mound in comparison. They had finally made it to the island of Odina, a dusty mountainous expanse of land upon which the base of the infamous Dark Hunters was built. The harsh orange daylight blazed overhead, but thanks to Lewa a dust storm concealed the Toa’s position. Up ahead they all could see a couple of Dark Hunter guards posted in front of a large stone gate.

“Leave them to me,” Lewa whispered to them all, and with a quick motion of his hands, small vortexes formed around the two guards’ heads, depriving them of air and causing them to collapse silently onto the sand.

The Toa snuck further in and, thanks to Onua tunneling them through, finally made it through the gates without raising a single alarm. Lewa took out another set of guards, and they all managed to slip inside the fortress.

Their collective goal was to locate the throne room of “The Shadowed One,” the mysterious leader of the Dark Hunters. If they could find him, they’d probably find the Staff of Artakha.

Kopaka focused his cybernetic eye on the surrounding walls, seeing straight through them. The fortress was a maze of twisting and overlapping hallways. Thankfully he could see a clear route straight towards the large empty chamber in the center. And he could see the tall dark figure that occupied it.

With his ability to spot all the patrolling Dark Hunters, Kopaka led his fellow Toa on a route that avoided them all. They all sprinted quietly, stopping only when the Ice Toa gave a signal. Kopaka directed his companions around a corner when walls suddenly surrounded them on all sides, trapping them.

“Where do you think you’re going?” A cold whispery voice surrounded them, chilling the room more than even Kopaka’s ice could.

“Who’s there?” Tahu demanded.

“You Toa are trespassing. And we don’t like Toa or trespassers,” the voice whispered, a menacing smile in its tone.

“We could just break out of this, you know,” Pohatu said, raising a fist to punch the wall in front of them.

“I’m well aware,” the voice said, “But I have an offer to make you lot. Care to stay for a civil discussion?”

The Toa Nuva all exchanged looks with one another.

“I don’t like this,” Onua said.

“I don’t either, brother,” Tahu said, “But maybe we should hear what he has to say.”

“It could be a trap,” Gali warned, her fists clenched hard around the handles of her twin aqua axes.

“It’s a risk we should be willing to take if we can get the Staff of Artakha,” Tahu reasoned. Gali looked uneasy, but nodded in agreement. Tahu added under his breath, “If things go south, you and Lewa can whip up a storm and we can escape.”

“Yes, good strategy,” the voice said, making them all jump. “I do hope it won’t come to that.” The wall in front of the Toa lowered back into the floor, exposing a long straight hallway that wasn’t there before. With Tahu taking the lead once again, the six Toa Nuva traversed the hallway until it ended in a large chamber with a single large throne set in the middle. It was sparsely lit by lightstones.

“Okay, Shadowed One, here we are,” Tahu called out into the dim chamber.

“Welcome, Toa. Please don’t bother making yourselves comfortable; this won’t take long.”

A tall sturdy figure strode into the room. He wore black armor, and was shrouded in a black cloak. His hood concealed his face, aside from a long thin mouth.

“So, I understand you think I have something you seek,” The Shadowed One said, moving across the room like smoke. His feet didn’t make a sound on the polished stone floor.

“Yes, we’ve come for the Staff of Artakha,” Tahu said formally.

“The Staff of Artakha,” whispered the Shadow One, smiling as if the name was amusing. “Unfortunately, I sold it years ago to the residents of Xia as payment for some much-needed weapons.”

None of the Toa made a move, but Tahu could feel the disappointment in all his companions as potently as his own.

“I’ll tell you what,” The Shadowed One continued, renewing the Toa’s collective anticipation, “I’ll let you go if you do something for me.”

He seemed to wait for any of the Toa to say something, but they all stayed silent. He clasped his long hands together, and began pacing in front of the line of Toa.

“One of Xia’s leading citizens Roodaka has been selling information to us for years. I’ve recently received reports that she’d been doing the same for the Brotherhood of Makuta, our sworn enemies. Find her on Xia and eliminate her.”

Tahu glanced over at Kopaka, who nodded silently. He took a deep breath and said, “You’ve got a deal.”

“Wait, Tahu—!” Gali protested, but quieted when the Shadowed One’s mouth widened into an unsettling grin.

“Very well,” The Shadowed One said, and with a wave of his hand an entrance opened behind his throne. “You’re free to go, Toa. But be warned, my agents will be keeping an eye on you to make sure you uphold your end of the bargain.”

“You have my word,” Tahu said, and began walking towards the opening behind the throne.

The Shadowed One laughed softly, chilling the Toa as they took their leave. “The word of a Toa is meaningless to me.” The opening slammed shut behind them, leaving them in darkness.

“That could’ve gone bad-worse,” Lewa chuckled. No one else laughed.

The Toa Nuva made their way through a series of tunnels that led back up to the dusty surface, right where their silver canisters waited on the beach. They all climbed in and started off for their next destination.

* * *

The island of Xia’s skyline was characterized by tall sharp buildings, which in turn where dwarfed by one enormous mountain. What the Toa didn’t expect was the smoke pouring from within the city. Led by Tahu, the Toa Nuva sprinted towards the civilization, and the panicked shouts of its citizens reached their ears. They also heard a bestial roar, and the subsequent smashing of rock and metal. A cloud of dust rose from another area of the city.

The Vortixx, the tall reptilian inhabitants of Xia, were in a panic. Half were firing blaster weapons in the streets, and the other half were running for their lives as far from the noise and smoke as they could.

“What’s going on he—oh,” Pohatu’s question was immediately answered when the head of a massive dragon emerged from behind one of the buildings. It let out another roar and collided its large head with the building, shattering its windows and causing more Vortixx to scatter.

“What do we do now? Should we quick-help?” Lewa asked, bouncing on his heels.

“It wouldn’t be a quick help,” Kopaka said, “That’s the Kanohi Dragon.”

“Even Toa Lhikan’s team couldn’t take that thing down,” Pohatu said, a hint of excitement in his voice. Kopaka gave him a reproachful look. “What?” Pohatu chuckled, nudging Kopaka with his elbow, “Just saying it could be a fun fight…”

“I say we look for Roodaka,” Tahu said.

“What about all the Vortixx?” Gali asked, surveying the chaos.

“Our mission comes first,” Kopaka said stonily, “Besides, look.”

He pointed ahead to a cluster of Vortixx wielding complex and sophisticated blaster weapons. They fired on the Kanohi Dragon, and the force of the explosions drove the beast back a few meters.

“Okay, then how do we find Roodaka?” Gali sighed.

“Based on the Turaga’s descriptions of her,” Onua reasoned, “She sounds more like one to save herself in a chaotic situation like this. She’d most likely be running away than fighting with her fellow Vortixx.”

“I think that’s a fair assumption,” Tahu said, smiling at the earth Toa before addressing them all, “Are we all in agreement?”

The Toa Nuva all voiced their agreement, and the team split up to search the area just outside the city. Kopaka began surveying the outskirts to the east. He moved quickly, looking through his cybernetic eye to peer through the buildings and smoke. He could see the illuminated silhouettes of the fleeing and fighting Vortixx within the city, and a few leaving the city for the outskirts as well.

All his muscles tensed when a loud crash sounded behind him. Kopaka glanced back the way he came and saw that about a mile away the Kanohi Dragon was perched on top of a building, crushing the glass and stone under its claws. He glanced about again, his eye caught sight of a lone female Vortixx sneaking her way through the streets. She would glance towards the dragon every once in a while, and finally took cover behind a pile of metal crates. Kopaka crept in her direction. As he got closer, he could make out more detail in her face.

She was just as the Turaga had described her. Long black hair with bright blue stripes. Cold blue snakelike eyes. Dark eyelids and lips.

The Kanohi Dragon roared and spread its massive leathery wings. It lit from the building it was perched on and swooped low, straight towards Kopaka. He dove for cover and he could feel the rush of air the creature left in its wake mere inches above his head. Kopaka snapped his head up, and saw Roodaka again, still crouched behind the crates.

The dragon landed on the ground this time, snarling and swinging its head from side to side as if it were looking for something. Through the thick walls of the building, Kopaka could see Roodaka stand up, and attempted to slip past the lumbering beast. The dragon flicked its tail up, and Kopaka sprang into action.

He sprinted in Roodaka’s direction. The dragon’s whiplike tail came down, and with the assistance of a quick ice slide, Kopaka grabbed Roodaka around her waist and yanked her away just as the tail stabbed the ground she stood on a second ago.

“Let me go!” Roodaka shrieked, struggling against Kopaka’s grip. He pulled her along through the streets, skating gracefully on his ice. Once they were a safe distance from the dragon, Kopaka released her. Roodaka prompty spun on her heel and began to sprint away, but she ran headlong into Pohatu.

“Good work, Kopaka!” Pohatu smiled pleasantly.

“Toa scum,” Roodaka spat, “Get out of my way!” She attempted to run, but Pohatu gripped her wrist and twisted her arm behind her back.

“Awfully rude, considering he saved your life,” Pohatu chided. Roodaka made a soft hissing sound in the back of her throat.

“I don’t need your help,” she snarled.

“Maybe not,” Kopaka said, his icy blue eyes staring straight into hers, “But we’re going to get yours.”

Tahu and Gali soon arrived on the scene.

“Good work, you two,” Tahu said encouragingly, then his expression soured when his eyes met Roodaka’s.

“So, this is the famous Roodaka,” Gali hissed.

“I’m flattered you’ve heard of me,” Roodaka hissed back, “But I don’t have any reason to be chatting with Toa. Let me go.” Her voice was low and dangerous, but Pohatu kept a firm grip on her arm.

“We’re here on official business from the Shadowed One,” Tahu said firmly, not breaking eye contact with her. A wide smile emerged from her lips.

“Oh, does he miss me? Tell him I said ‘hi.’ Are we done here?”

“Unfortunately, he wanted us to deal with you,” Tahu said. Roodaka’s smile faded. Her expression darkened once again.

“I see, the coward couldn’t deal with me himself. Typical of him to send others to do his dirty work,” she hissed.

“Hey everyone, look who I’ve found!” Lewa piped up, arriving on the scene with six more figures following him. They stepped into the light, revealing their weathered, mutated faces.

“Rahaga,” Roodaka purred, smiling again, “How nice to see you again.”

“They came to fight-help your kind,” Lewa said, “But we spotted you, and they had to stop for a short-greet.”

Norik was in the lead, and stepped forward first, his usually friendly demeanor was hardened and angry.

“We have unfinished business,” Norik said, staring daggers at the former Visorak viceroy, “Give us one reason we shouldn’t kill you right here and now.”

“My dear Norik,” Roodaka purred, “Killing is against the Toa rulebook.”

“I think we’re past rules at this point,” added Iruni who stepped up next to Norik.

Roodaka glanced between the Toa Nuva and the Rahaga. Resignation seemed to pass across her face, and sensing her muscles relaxing, Pohatu let go of her arm. Roodaka then raised a hand towards the Rahaga and fired a bolt of energy towards them.

The six Rahaga were surrounded by the energy, and their bodies morphed into taller, muscular, and thoroughly unmutated Toa. They all sighed and exclaimed in delight at their restored forms.

“Ah, it’s good to be back,” Gaaki said, weighing her Toa tool in her hands.

“No need to thank me,” Roodaka spat.

Tahu looked past everyone and spotted Onua, who had gone underground to search the Vortixx’s storerooms for the Staff, and he looked in bad shape. He was limping, bleeding from several injuries, his eyes clouded. Lewa rushed to his side.

“Looks like you have an urgent matter to attend to,” the newly restored Toa Bomonga said, “We’ll deal with her,” he shot a look over at Roodaka, “And the dragon.” Tahu nodded gratefully to him and to Norik, and he and his fellow Toa helped Onua over to a secluded area far away from the city and the dragon.

Onua groaned in pain as Gali used a small amount of water summoned from her hands to wash his wounds. Tahu crouched next to him.

“What happened?”

“Someone got to…the staff…first,” Onua’s breathing was heavy, “He looked…like…Makuta, but he wasn’t. He took…the staff…and…” he coughed, and winced at the pain it caused. Tahu patted Onua’s uninjured shoulder gently.

“Don’t worry. We’ll find him.”

“Stand back, Tahu,” Gali said, “I need to treat him.”

As Gali began using her powers to close Onua’s injuries, Tahu joined the rest of the Toa standing on a small cliff overlooking the beach they had arrived on. He looked up at the darkening sky and his breath caught in his throat.

All the stars that had disappeared the previous night were back.

“Brother,” Lewa said, noticing as well, “this means…”

“They did it. The Inika succeeded!” Pohatu exclaimed happily, pumping a fist in the air. The Toa of Stone clapped Kopaka on the back, who didn’t react, but stared reverently at the stars above them. Tahu breathed a sigh of relief. He could feel a fresh wave of hope. That means they were bought more precious time to awaken the Great Spirit.

Gali and Onua joined the group soon afterwards. Onua still limped, but his wounds were clean and bandaged. The Toa formed a circle.

“Okay, we’re going after the bastard that took the staff and hurt Onua,” Tahu said.

“He said his name was Icarax,” Onua said, his voice a bit stronger than before, “and he’s a ‘Makuta,’ meaning the species Makuta, not the Makuta we fought on Mata Nui.”

“Makuta has a _species?_ ” Lewa asked incredulously.

“And did he say where he was going?” Kopaka said, a hint of impatience creeping into his voice.

“The realm of Karzahni,” Onua said gravely.

“Sounds nice,” Pohatu joked.

“Let’s sea-sail over there!” Lewa said, bounding towards the beach. The rest of the Toa followed, full of renewed vigor at the sight of the twinkling stars in the darkening night sky.

* * *

The realm of Karzahni was far less pleasant than any of the Toa Nuva would have guessed. The bizarre and unsettlingly quiet landscape was inhabited by thousands of downtrodden and empty husks of matoran that milled about aimlessly. The Toa searched for the leader of this realm, Karzahni himself, but he was nowhere to be found. And the matoran were of no help, either. Most of them couldn’t even remember their own names.

“This is appalling,” Gali said, her heart heavy at the sight.

“They can’t stay here,” Onua added, “There’s no leader, no work for them to do.”

“What if they came home-bound? Metru Nui’s got work-room, right?” Lewa piped up. His tone was cheerful, but his green eyes shone with concern.

“It’s a nice thought,” Tahu said, “But I worry about their conditions. What if none of them can work?”

“We can’t just leave them here,” Gali insisted.

“Some home-rest and friend-help couldn’t harm them, could it?” Lewa said. He looked almost as if he were begging. Tahu’s face softened and he gave Lewa a smile.

“Alright, you and Onua work on directing them towards Metru Nui. The rest of us will search for this Icarax.”

Lewa nodded happily, and bounded towards Onua. The two of them ran off to help the matoran of Karzahni. Gali felt warmed at the sight. She joined Tahu, Kopaka, and Pohatu and they began searching the area.

Gali noticed some large impressions in the sand, a lot like the markings of large crab skittering about. They reminded her of something that she and her brothers fought down in the caverns of Mata Nui…

“Wasn’t Karzahni supposed to have manas crabs guarding his realm?” Gali asked the others.

“That’s right, the Turaga did mention that once,” Pohatu said.

“So, where are they now?”

“They ran away like pathetic little lava rats, which is what you should be doing!” An explosive voice interrupted the Toa’s investigation. Gali and her brother’s heads snapped about, looking for its source. A jagged shadowy bolt struck the ground between Gali and Tahu, and they both leapt away a second after it struck. The four Toa brandished their weapons, still unaware of their new enemy’s whereabouts.

Four new shadow bolts surged towards them, but Tahu summoned his kanohi shield and the bolts bounced off. A boulder came sailing out of nowhere and struck Kopaka, who fell instantly.

“Hey!” Pohatu cried angrily, but a large shadowy figure appeared behind him, picked him up by his back armor, and threw him a great distance towards a tall stone pillar. Pohatu positioned his body so he could then hit the pillar feet-first and push off to deliver a blow straight at his attacker. Just as he pushed off the pillar, he was struck in the chest by a shadow bolt, and hit the ground, skidded a few feet, and lay paralyzed in pain.

Tahu’s twin swords were fully ignited, and Gali could feel the heat even meters away. She gripped her aqua axes as hard as she could, and as she searched for the mysterious enemy, she began summoning up all the moisture in the air that she could sense. The attacker struck Tahu’s legs, bringing him down. As he struggled to stand, Gali began tossing ribbons of water towards the fast-moving enemy.

The attacker stopped in front of Gali, peering down at her with burning red eyes. Eyes a lot like Makuta’s.

“Who are you?” Gali said through her gritted teeth. The enemy swung a double-bladed sword towards her, but she flipped out of the way. Tahu blasted the enemy with fire from behind, but this only angered him. The enemy grabbed Tahu by the throat, and threw him violently to the ground, knocking the wind out of him.

Gali flinched as the shadowy enemy fixed his burning gaze on her again. He was taller than Makuta was, and twice as muscular. But he wore similar dark armor, and his skin was a sickly grey color. He had long jet black hair that fell into his eyes. He peered at Gali, who held his gaze all the while calling upon every drop of water from the air around them. If she could gather enough without him noticing…

“Looking for this?” the enemy said in a deep thundering voice, pulling a long staff from his back. It shone with a golden sheen that rivaled Takanuva’s armor.

Gali didn’t say a word. She could feel every ounce of elemental power within her building up. She took a step back, as her enemy stepped towards her, grinning menacingly.

“Let me be clear,” the enemy said, “My name is Icarax and that alone should leave you terrified.”

“I won’t be intimidated by a Makuta wannabe,” Gali retorted. She could feel her whole body heating up. She was ready to release a Nova blast, though she worried about drowning her unconscious friends. But Icarax continued his advance, twirling the Staff of Artakha as if it were a plaything.

“Every Toa is the same. It’s always ‘I’m not afraid! I will defeat you!’,” Icarax jeered, “They always end up as bloody pulp.”

Gali ducked and dodged a few more blows from Icarax, all of them coming far too close to striking her.

This was it. She had to do it.

Gali released every ounce of strength she possessed into one single explosion of water. Tsunamis raged and swept away the stone pillars and destroyed the decrepit buildings the matoran of Karzahni had built. Gali tried to direct the water away from her fellow Toa, but she could see some of them get swept up as well.

“No, no!” she shouted over the howling rains and rushing waves.

She lost sight of Icarax in the deluge. With every bit of her power exhausted, Gali collapsed onto the soaking ground. The waves had dissipated, but what was left was utter destruction. Her vision began to blur as weakness overcame her limbs. She could just barely make out the forms of her fellow Toa, stirring on the ground and coughing up water.

Gali stumbled towards Tahu, who was closest. He was already up, but was hunched over his knees and violently coughing, trying to rid his lungs of water. Gali rested a hand on his back.

“Brother…is everyone…okay?” she said with great effort. Tahu looked over his shoulder at her.

“Yes, I’m fine, Gali. I think…” he paused to cough, “I think we’re all fine.”

“Good, I…” Gali collapsed onto the ground. She’d never felt so weak before, not even after being hit with Brutaka’s sword back on Voya Nui. She felt a hand on her shoulder.

“Gali? Gali!” Tahu’s voice faded away as Gali blacked out.

Tahu knelt over Gali’s unconscious form. He observed the destruction around them, in awe at the aftermath of Gali’s power. He looked down at her, a fond smile on his face.

“You saved me from the rahkshi’s poison on Mata Nui, and now it looks like I owe you double,” he said to her, though he knew she couldn’t hear at the moment.

“Tahu!” Pohatu suddenly appeared at his side, followed silently by Kopaka.

“Icarax is gone, and looks like the Staff is too,” Tahu sighed, picking Gali up in his arms, “Let’s regroup with Lewa and Onua and do the next task on the list.”

Pohatu agreed, and Kopaka didn’t argue, so the three of them made their way for the exit of the now-destroyed Karzahni.

* * *

In the following hours, Gali had finally regained consciousness, and Lewa and Onua had rejoined the group. They had managed to direct the matoran of Karzahni to Metru Nui, where they were taken in with open arms. Tahu read his companions the next tasks on the list, and they split up to accomplish them all as efficiently as possible. The stars still blazed in the night sky, but none of them were willing to take any chances with wasted time.

Tahu and Kopaka went south to do battle with a group of active volcanoes. Pohatu and Onua went in the same direction to find an artifact called “The Heart of the Visorak,” and Lewa and Gali headed up to the island of Mata Nui, where they were able to see the fruits of the Borok’s labors. The entire surface was cleared of foliage, the mountains were leveled, and the streams were dried up. There was nothing left, aside from one raised hill near the area where Ga-Koro used to be. The two began heading in that direction, until Lewa wandered off in the direction of the now-destroyed Kini-Nui.

“Lewa? Where are you going?” Gali said.

“I’ll meet up with you later, water-sister,” Lewa answered, his voice strange and distant. Staring after him for a moment, Gali decided to keep moving ahead with the plan. She approached the hill and noticed that upon it sat the old observatory. She had only been inside a few times. She momentarily recalled the eccentric Ga-matoran Nixie that had spent all her days in there.

Gali entered the building and was greeted with a breeze that swept dust through the place. She coughed and spat but made her way through the building up to the large telescope. She slid open the doors and searched the dark sky. She spotted the red star, burning brighter than its surrounding yellow and blue cousins. Gali adjusted the telescope and peered through its lens.

The red star was even more brilliant close up. Its whole surface undulated like a fiery ocean. There was something else…Gali blinked and willed her eyes to focus. She tweaked the magnification, and this time it was clearer what she was seeing. The movement on the surface…that wasn’t fire. It was as if there were thousands of tiny beings moving about on its surface.

Gali jerked away from the telescope and sprinted out of the observatory. She ran as hard as she could across the sand and dirt. She had to let the others know.

“Gali! Gali!” Lewa called, and Gali stumbled to a halt. Lewa trotted up to her, holding a round object in his hand, about the size of his fist.

“What is that?” Gali asked.

“It’s a sundial,” Lewa explained, “A thought-voice came to me, said I had to dig it up. It was really big, then it quick-shrunk down to this!” He held up the curious object. It gleamed under the sun.

“Tell me more about it later, Lewa, we need to get back to the others!” Gali’s sense of urgency overtook her again, and she pulled him by the arm, sprinting towards the outskirts of the island. She was so focused on what she saw on the red star that she ran headlong into a tall strange looking being with an enormous jaw full of long sharp teeth.

“You are needed,” he said, reaching a hand out to her.

“Wait—” Gali started, but within the span of a blink, she found herself and Lewa side by side with their fellow Toa once again, all inside a large open chamber somewhere underground. There was a niche carved into the floor in the center, with a circular hole in the ceiling a mile above it.

A tall slim female figure entered the chamber. She was dressed in scarred Toa armor and fitted with a long elegant blue cloak. Her dark skin sported several scars and she had silvery grey hair tied up on the back of her head. Her eyes were a pale cloudy blue. She looked both ageless and ancient at the same time. When she spoke, her voice was clear and vast as the ocean.

“Welcome, Toa Nuva. You have proven yourselves to the Order of Mata Nui,” the female Toa said. The Toa Nuva exchanged looks with one another. “Our faith in you was warranted. I’ve brought you here to see the fruits of your labors.”

Onua stepped forward almost shyly, taking a large yellow stone from his pack and holding it out to her. She took it carefully.

“The Heart of the Visorak,” she said, “Good work. The Brotherhood of Makuta won’t summon the hordes so easily now.”

Lewa stepped forward and held out the sundial he dug up on Mata Nui.

“I shall have this sent to Metru Nui as soon as possible,” the female Toa nodded to Lewa who smiled sheepishly, and slunk back in line next to his fellow Toa. The female Toa then addressed Tahu and Kopaka, who were covered head to toe in soot and sported some minor burns and damage to their armor, “I take it the volcanoes were taken care of?”

Kopaka nodded wordlessly.

“But, we didn’t get the Staff—,” Tahu started, but his voice died in his throat when another being entered the room. This one towered over them all; he may have even been taller than Makuta Icarax. He was bald and wore thick silver armor, and his eyes were silver, almost reflective. He held the Staff of Artakha in his hands. He brought it over to the female Toa, who took it, nodding gratefully. She held the Staff in her long graceful hands.

She glided swiftly towards the niche in the floor, and placed the end of the staff into it. It locked in with a loud click, and the Staff began to glow. A shockwave of energy shimmered out of it, and spread through the chamber, and passed through the earthen walls.

“Right now, the Staff is repairing all the damage that was done when Mata Nui fell,” the female Toa explained, “The world shall be restored to the way it was always meant to be.”

“Will it repair the island of Mata Nui?” Gali asked, feeling foolish as soon as she said it.

“No, the Borok did their duty. Clearing the surface was always part of the plan.”

The Toa Nuva remained silent until Kopaka broke the silence.

“So, what’s next? Where do we go from here?”

The female Toa smiled, and gestured with one of her hands. A door opened from seemingly nowhere, and the small figure of a lone matoran stepped into the chamber. He reminded Gali a bit of Takua the Chronicler; he had very similar features. His skin was tan, his hair was curly and white, and his eyes shone a bright sky blue. He wore simple white and gold clothes but strode with the posture of a strong and wise Turaga.

“Come, Toa,” he said, beckoning with his hand, “It’s time to go.”

“Go where?” Kopaka asked rather bluntly, “I’m getting a bit tired of this wild rahi chase.”

“Patience, Toa of Ice,” the matoran said formally, a bright smile on his face, “You have been invited to my master’s realm, the island of Artakha. He will speak with you, or he will not, depending on his temperament.”

“Sounds like a party,” Pohatu joked, “When do we leave?”

The world around the Toa Nuva shifted and blurred, blazing brighter than the twin suns, before fading out again. When they all regained their senses, the Toa were standing on a new and unfamiliar beach. The sands shone a silvery-purple color, and the sky was blindingly white and yellow.

“You have arrived,” the matoran said cheerfully.


	2. Shadows in the Sky

Further inland, the silvery-purple sands became grey-purple stone, stretching up into impressively tall peaks. The stone shimmered in the white sunlight, throwing off all the colors of a rainbow. Tahu was unsure if it was beautiful or excessive; it certainly hurt his eyes. He glanced over at his companions, who were all squinting at the dazzling landscape. Onua in particular was shielding his sensitive eyes with his hand; being adapted to living underground, the brightness was especially difficult for him to handle.

The Toa Nuva were unsure of where to go, as the matoran that had led them here had disappeared. But Tahu had the feeling that if they simply walked forward that they’d get to where they were needed. His companions followed close behind him as they began the ascent on a long path up the largest mountain they could see.

They didn’t talk the whole way. There was a peaceful atmosphere to this place, so it seemed a bit wrong to speak out loud. As they walked, however, they could hear the rhythmic clinking of matoran tools. There were thousands of matoran of all different races toiling away, carving out intricate and beautiful structures out of the mountain faces. There was occasional laughter and civil conversation. No wild rahi, borok, rahkshi, or Piraka came to attack them, no arguments broke out. The sky was clear, and the air was light and fragrant with flowering plants. It was a paradise.

Expecting a long journey, Tahu nearly started at the sight of an immense stone gate guarding an even more immense fortress behind it. Its tall spires were elaborate and formed complicated shapes of leaping flames and ocean waves. It looked more like a work of art than a practical stronghold.

They all stood for a moment, in awe of the structures before them, and unsure of what their next steps should be. Tahu took the initiative.

“Artakha! The Toa Nuva are here! Will you come speak with us?”

There was silence for a moment, and as Tahu stepped back from the gate, a light from above shone down onto the fortress behind the gate, burning a bright white. Tahu and his companions all squinted and shielded their eyes. Onua closed his completely, to dull the pain. At the same time, a great storm whipped through the area instantaneously. It buffeted the Toa Nuva with harsh winds and pelting rain.

Gali glanced over at Lewa, and they nodded at each other. They both raised their arms, focusing their combined elemental energies to calm the storm. But these winds and rains didn’t answer to them.

_Toa Nuva. Mata Nui’s chosen heroes._

The ageless genderless voice came from all directions at once, and it seemed to pierce down to each Toa’s core. It was louder than the howling winds, yet it sounded like a whisper.

“Artakha?” Tahu asked, his voice barely rising above the storm.

_Correct. I am Artakha._

“Will you speak with us? We’re on a mission,” Tahu called out, his voice getting stronger, “We’re going to awaken The Great Spirit Mata Nui.”

_I know well of your quest, Toa Nuva. I know it as well as I know each of you._

“Do you know that you’re soaking your own guests?” Pohatu called out, sarcasm in his voice.

_I know why you are here. You seek my help in your quest._

The winds quieted, and the rain suddenly turned to snow. It piled up on the ground in a matter of seconds. Kopaka struck the ground with his weapon, but the snow didn’t clear like he had commanded. The Toa of Ice frowned with disapproval.

“It’s obvious to us that you’re powerful,” Kopaka said coldly, “Now are you going to help, or not?”

_Toa Nuva. Despite your impatience and stubbornness, there is no doubt you are worthy warriors of the Great Spirit. You have accomplished much, but there is a lot more in store for all of you. I can foresee your victories as well as your defeats._

“Artakha, we came all this way,” Tahu interjected, annoyance growing in his mind, “We didn’t come for flattery.”

_I am aware._

“So, will you help us?” Tahu asked. Silence followed. It felt like an agonizingly long time, though it may have only been a few seconds before Artakha spoke again.

_I cannot join your side in battle. But I can bestow you with the means to fight your most difficult battle yet._

Soon Tahu and his companions were bombarded by the light over the fortress, somehow brighter than before. It enveloped them in warmth, filled their bodies with a burning sensation. And when it was all over, they were all fitted with different armor, thicker and sleeker than before, and they were all filled with a great amount of enhanced energy.

“Kopaka, your eye!” Pohatu gasped in awe when he glanced over at the Toa of Ice, who blinked in confusion. His cybernetic eye was gone, and in its place was another eye identical to the organic one he already had. Kopaka touched his new eye gingerly with his finger. Pohatu grinned, patting his friend on the shoulder.

_Now go forth, Toa Nuva. Your destiny shall be met in the world that feeds the world, the Great Heart. May the Great Spirit guide you, and may his awakening bring light to your world once again._

In the next instant, the blinding realm of Artakha was gone, and the Toa Nuva found themselves somehow hovering over yet another new landscape. It was a massive cavern, with small villages built upon giant fallen stalactites that rose from the swampy ground miles below. Miles above, there was a hole in the rocky ceiling, where a small amount of light shone through. As their eyes adjusted to the dimness, the Toa glanced about in awe. In catching sight of one another, they could see that their new armor kept them aloft in the air and sported artificial wing-like structures.

And there were clouds of darkness gathering. The Toa all gazed into the distance, where dark jagged shapes were emerging from swirling clouds of darkness and flapping spiked wings straight for them all.

“All right! If I’m not mistaken, those are the bad guys!” Pohatu grinned and blasted forward after the advancing menace.

Kopaka sighed, muttering “you idiot,” under his breath before flying after the Toa of Stone. Lewa withdrew a weapon from his back armor, starting at its jagged shape. He felt a pang for his old air katanas, but shook it off when the flapping of wings reached his ears and the air chilled the way it normally did when Makuta’s power was around.

He blasted after Pohatu and Kopaka, feeling a thrill at the prospect of fighting a battle in the air; it was his element, after all. As the winged foes drew closer, he could make out features that mirrored the Makuta they fought on Mata Nui and Icarax, though their red eyes were more cloudy. _More Makuta?_ Lewa thought, still not quite ready to accept the prospect of there being more than one red-eyed grey skinned power-hungry maniac for him and his fellow Toa to fight.

The assault began, with bolts of shadow energy being fired at the Toa. Lewa dodged, rolled in the air, and flipped out of the way. As he flew, he noticed the flying Makuta were also launching large pods towards them. Channeling his air power through his new sword, Lewa shot a powerful blast at one of the pods, which broke open. Several shrieking, wriggling worm-like creatures tumbled out.

Intrigued, Lewa caught one of the creatures in a small vortex, intending to catch it for Kopaka to study, when a substantial weight landed on his back, wrecking his flight pattern and releasing the worm from his vortex. It fell miles below, shrieking the whole way.

“Hey, what gives!” he yelled, craning his neck to see what—or who—landed on him.

“Don’t touch those,” said a voice behind him, “They’ll drain your light.”

“Don’t touch—? Drain my what?” Lewa said, getting flustered. He could feel a small pair of hands gripping his shoulders. “Get off me!”

Suddenly, Lewa’s mind was flooded with a ton of images and thoughts that he knew were not his own. Flashes of a peaceful life on one of the stalactite villages, farming and harvesting. A sudden attack by more of those wormlike creatures. Matoran bitten and mutated into a twisted, dark version of themselves. Battles in the sky. A hidden waterfall, and a white figure falling through it, which looked awfully familiar…

“Get out of my head-thoughts!” Lewa cried in a panic, spinning in the air and commanding a gust of wind to blow the being off his back. The weight was gone, but then Lewa spotted a small figure falling away from him. A matoran!

Lewa focused his energy into a dive through the air towards the falling stranger. He fell past the matoran, then leveled himself underneath him so he could land on Lewa’s back once again.

“Who are you?” Lewa asked.

The matoran breathed hard for a second, gripping Lewa’s shoulders tighter.

“Tanma,” the matoran answered, “And you look a lot like a Toa from Solek’s stories.”

“Who’s Solek? Where are we? And what do they want?” Lewa pointed ahead to the advancing Makuta who were engaged in a fight with his fellow Toa.

“Take them out first, then I can answer your questions,” Tanma said dryly.

Off in the distance, Tahu flew next to Onua and Gali as they prepared to face the incoming onslaught. Tahu weighed his new weapon in his hand, puzzling at its shape. It looked like the propeller of a Metru Nui airship.

“So, what’s the plan?” Gali asked.

“What do you think, Onua?” Tahu asked. Onua was observant and a skilled strategist, and Tahu trusted him to come up with something quickly.

“The Makuta, they look as if they’ve been blinded. They’ve got smaller creatures on their backs, probably using them as their eyes. Take them out, and they lose their sight.”

Tahu nodded, and so did Gali. They took aim with their new weapons. Tahu held up his strange rotating blades, and was almost surprised at the size of the flames that leapt from it, the blades spinning rapidly to fan the inferno towards his opponents. One Makuta in the front of the shadowy ranks spun wildly out of the way, and soon his smaller companion was knocked off his back by a blast of water from Gali. She, Tahu, and Onua then all dove and spun out of the way of a bombardment of shadow bolts.

The Makuta that lost his rider then spun into a retreat. The other two continued their advance until their riders were also knocked away, one by Pohatu, and another by Kopaka. There were more of the smaller ones flying towards them, and they continued the onslaught.

“Wait, do those look like…” Gali paused to dodge another shadow bolt.

“What is it, Gali?” Tahu asked. Gali’s brow furrowed.

“Don’t they look a lot like…matoran?”

“Guys!” Lewa interrupted, flying up to greet them. There was a matoran clinging to his back. “We need to quick-retreat! Tanma here can lead us there!”

Without further discussion or argument, the Toa Nuva regrouped and descended towards a village on the flat end of one of the giant stalactites below. They all landed, some more gracefully than others, and the matoran named Tanma lead the Toa down into a network of tunnels inside the stalactite. They settled down into a chamber where a few dozen matoran huddled together.

Tanma sighed heavily, then looked up to the Toa Nuva.

“We have a lot of questions,” Tahu stated.

“To make it as short as possible, those winged brutes are Makuta. They’ve been giving us quite a bit of trouble lately, and their smaller companions, well, they used to be our friends.”

The Toa exchanged looks with one another.

“Shadow matoran,” Tanma clarified, “Av-Matoran like me and the others here that were attacked and bitten by shadow leeches. The worm-like things in the pods the Makuta had.”

“I noticed the Makuta that attacked us were blind, why?” Onua asked.

“Something happened,” Tanma said, his gaze on something beyond the Toa standing in front of him, “I saw someone. Through a hole in the great waterfall. White armor, white hair. He was carrying a golden mask…”

The Toa all exchanged looks again. Tahu met Kopaka’s gaze. Gali stated out loud what they were both thinking.

“Matoro?” she asked, her blue eyes wide.

“After I lost sight of him, there was an explosion. It was really bright, we could see and feel it down here. The Makuta were flying around outside our village, and they were blinded.”

“Matoro…so Matoro had the Ignika…How long ago was this?” Onua asked.

“It had to have been no more than a week ago,” Tanma shrugged, “why?”

“That’s around the time the stars came back,” Onua said, looking up at Gali, whose face fell with the realization of what must have happened.

“So Matoro…brought Mata Nui back. He’s gone,” Gali said. Tahu placed a hand on her shoulder.

“He sacrificed himself to save the universe,” Kopaka stated.

Gali glanced at the Toa of Ice. He didn’t seem affected by the news to the casual observer, but as Gali searched his icy eyes she could tell he at least cared a little bit.

Pohatu put an arm around Kopaka as the Toa observed a moment of silence for the fallen hero. When it was over, Tanma broke the silence.

“I’m sorry for your loss. I’ve lost a lot of friends as well. But if you are half the heroes Solek always said you were, you’ll help prevent us losing more.”

“Of course,” Tahu said, stepping forward, “We’ll help you fight the Makuta and restore your village.”

“Thanks, on behalf of all Av-Matoran,” Tanma said with a small smile, “Welcome to Karda Nui.”

“So uh, this is Karda Nui, huh?” Pohatu said, “Seems…” Suddenly the Toa of Stone’s face lit up, and he turned to his fellow Toa, his brown eyes shining with excitement.

“Guys!” he exclaimed, “We’ve been here before!”

Momentary confusion gave way to a sudden rush of clarity, and Tahu glanced around at his fellow Toa. From the looks on their faces, they were experiencing what he was feeling. Memories rushed back to him, long forgotten ones. They were still a bit foggy, but suddenly the veil of his life before Mata Nui was lifted.

“We were trained on D—Daxia! I remember now!” Lewa exclaimed.

“We were sent here to…to…” Gali said, searching for the rest of that thought.

“There were these energy bursts…” Onua said.

“…looked like bolts of lightning…” Kopaka added.

“Yeah, I remember,” Tahu said quietly. The Toa all sat in silence for a few moments, overwhelmed by both the news about Matoro and their sudden recollection of their distant past.

“I remember someone too, Kirop!” Lewa piped up, “Is he here?”

Tanma grunted, “You fought him not too long ago.” Lewa’s face fell.

Tahu stepped forward. “So, now we need a plan.”

“The Ignika,” Kopaka said suddenly, bringing all to his attention, “where is it now?”

“You mean that golden mask?” Tanma said, “It was probably destroyed in the explosion.”

“What if it wasn’t, then where would it be?” Pohatu asked.

“In the swamp below.”

“So, we have two options,” Gali said, “Defend the matoran here, or go look for the Ignika.”

“I know you’re not a fan of this suggestion,” Tahu started as Gali raised an eyebrow at him, “But we should probably split up.”

“Two teams, one up here and one below,” Kopaka said.

Gali smiled at Tahu, chuckling, “That’s not a bad plan.”

* * *

Light. Color. Water. Salt. Plants. Fish. Sand. It was surrounded by it. Each one vibrated with energy. Energy was everywhere.

Where? Who?

It began to form a thought.

_Water. I am in water._

_I? Who is I?_

The Ignika. The Mask of Life.

That was it. That’s what it was. It was the Ignika. It was in water. But why? Why was it in water?

A bright light. Blinding. A waterfall. Falling.

It was beginning to come back now. The Ignika, it fell. Down a waterfall. And before that?

It was the Ignika. The Mask of Life. Many beings wanted it. Many fought for it. The Ignika could remember. Many beings guarded it. It was powerful.

_Why? Why did they want…me?_

Life. What was life? The Mask of Life…it controlled life. But what is life?

It felt its surroundings. Life. Movements. Vibrations. Breath. The plants swaying in the water. The fish swimming. And above.

There was something above. Beyond the water.

The Ignika. The Mask of Life. It could control life, the movement, the vibrations, the breath. When those go away, no life. No breath. Cold. Dead.

That’s right, death. There was a lot of death. It saw, it felt.

_Felt? Feel? What is feel?_

It felt the life around it. It felt the living beings that sought to grasp it. To use its power.

Loathsome beings. They brought death. Cold. Dead. Too many.

But there was one. Not cold. Warm. A being that brought life through their own death. This death was good.

_I was going dark, then I got the light back._

Matoro.

_Matoro_.

That was his name. He was different than those others. The others took the Ignika and brought death. Matoro took the Ignika and brought life.

He was gone. His body…body?

_Body? Form?_

The Ignika realized. It had no body. Not like Matoro. The Ignika was an object. It watched. It waited. It was held, carried. No life. No movement, no vibration, no breath.

_What is it like? To move? To breathe?_

The Ignika drew in the energy from the surrounding life in the water. Body. Limbs. Movement. Vibrations. Breath…

_Breath…where is it?_

_Pain._

He was in water. Matoro could breathe. Did he breathe water? No, maybe yes? No.

_He? I am he?_

The Ignika felt. Body Limbs. Muscles, tendons, veins.

_I am a he. I am a body._

_Pain still_.

The Ignika reached his arms above him. There was a light far above him. More pain. Chest. Mouth. Water. The water does not belong.

He pumped his arms down, and his body rose. He did it again. Higher still. The light was closer. One more time.

_Air!_

He sucked in the air through his mouth, making his chest expand. It contracted with a forceful motion, and water gushed out. No more water. More air. Yes, this was good. He lifted himself out of the water, onto the ground.

Solid, hard. Rock? Yes, rock. Dirt. More plants.

The Ignika stood with his new legs. He observed his surroundings with his new eyes. He blinked. Darkness for a moment. Then light again. Plants. Trees. Wind.

Life.

So, this is how it felt. The Ignika began to walk. Movement. Vibrations.

Breath.

Matoro. Just like Matoro.

The Ignika felt something else. Not good. Dark. There was life nearby. Life that brought death.

More new feelings. Fear. Rage. Those beings were not like Matoro. They were bad. The Ignika wanted to be good, like Matoro.

Fight. Toa. Toa Matoro fought. Good fighting brought good things.

Power. The Ignika had power. Not the same as Matoro, but good like Matoro.

_I can use power to fight._

From the rocks and plants, the Ignika formed a vehicle for himself. Vehicle. Movement. Not life, but movement. It was flat on the top, enough room for him to stand on. He stepped onto it. It rose. Like he told it to.

_Toa_. _Toa like Matoro._

_I will fight. I will learn._

And so, the newly awakened Toa Ignika flew into battle.

* * *

It was agreed that Kopaka, Pohatu, and Lewa would stay in Karda Nui and defend the matoran from the Makuta and their shadow leeches, and Tahu, Gali, and Onua would descend to the swamplands below to search for the Ignika.

Kopaka was stopped by a matoran, who was exuding intense nervous excitement. Kopaka waited patiently for him to speak, making a conscious effort to soften his face to look less intimidating.

“Kopaka, it’s so nice to meet you,” The matoran said, “I’m Solek. I know almost everything about you and your team. You’re all amazing, but especially you! I’m sorry, if that’s a bit…uh, anyway! You don’t remember, do you?”

“My memories of this place are a bit muddled,” Kopaka admitted, smiling at the matoran.

“Did you know, you fought an entire legion of Zyglak all on your own! You were incredible! That’s why I admire you the most, you’re really strong!”

“Slow down,” Kopaka said, amused, “I don’t remember that. But there’s a lot I don’t remember. Tell me more.”

“Did you know, when you were training, you and Tahu sparred a lot, and he once injured your eye really badly? That’s why the Order gave you a cybernetic one! But it looks like you don’t have it anymore!”

Kopaka’s fingers brushed the skin near his newly formed eye. It was strange having two eyes. _And it was Tahu that made me lose it in the first place?_ he mused, _So that’s why I hated him when we met on Mata Nui_. Kopaka almost laughed.

“We payed Artakha a visit. They gave me a new one,” Kopaka said.

“That’s good. That’s really good!” Solek said, beaming.

“You remind me a lot of Takua,” Kopaka said, “He also had a special interest in Toa.”

“T-Takua?!” Solek cried, “You know Takua?”

“Yes,” Kopaka said, curious, “ _You_ know Takua?”

“He was my best friend! Before he disappeared, that is. Thousands of years ago. So, he’s alive?” Solek’s blue eyes sparkled.

“He’s alive and well. In fact, he goes by Takanuva now,” Kopaka said, “But more about that later. We need to prepare ourselves for the battle.”

“Oh, right! Yes, of course! Thank you for talking with me!” Solek bounded away, and Kopaka smiled after the enthusiastic matoran. Solek suddenly turned around and bounded up to Kopaka again. He held out a small stone fragment and placed it in Kopaka’s outstretched hand.

“This is important. It’s a piece of a keystone. It’ll open the way to awakening the Great Spirit. Kirop has a piece, and the Makuta have another. The other three have been lost as far as I know.”

Kopaka nodded respectfully, feeling his face settle into a warm smile. “Thank you, Solek,” he said.

* * *

It had been about two days since the Toa Nuva split into two groups. Lewa, Kopaka, and Pohatu had spent all that time fighting alongside the Av-matoran of Karda Nui against a nearly constant barrage of attacks from the Makuta and their shadow matoran underlings. The village on the stalactite was trapped in a cycle of reinforcement, destruction, repair, and reinforcement. The matoran were exhausted, and the Toa weren’t faring much better.

Pohatu had injured his shoulder in a scuffle with a Makuta, and as he had to hold it in a sling while Kopaka and Lewa surveyed the skies from behind the makeshift barrier they had helped the matoran build. All three of them were tired, coated in sweat and dirt, and unsure how long they could hold out. At the moment the Makuta were out of sight, but their shadow matoran servants patrolled the skies, circling like predatory rahi birds.

Tanma crawled up next to Lewa. The Av-matoran craned his neck to watch their shadowy foes glide about miles above them. He wore an expression of disgust.

“Look at them,” he said, bringing the Toa to attention, “Just out of range, just to taunt us.”

Lewa was inspired to action. Focusing his air power through his new spear into a thin but powerful arrow-like shape, he blasted a shadow matoran that had drifted lower than the others. The shadow matoran was struck, and plummeted far to the ground, landing with a _thud_ several meters away from the Toa’s hiding spot.

Lewa turned and grinned at Tanma. “Not _too_ out of range!” the Toa of Air said. Tanma rolled his eyes.

“Good work, Toa, except there’s still hundreds of them out there.”

Kopaka jumped the barrier.

“Wait, ice-brother!” Lewa exclaimed. Pohatu craned his neck to see what was happening, still holding onto his injured shoulder while he waited for it to heal.

Kopaka dodged a few shadow bolts from the other shadow matoran above, and scooped up the one Lewa had shot down. For a split moment, Kopaka noticed just how much those shadow leeches had corrupted the matoran’s form. His limbs were elongated and bent out of shape, like an insect’s legs. His skin was a washed-out grey color, and from his partially opened mouth Kopaka could see his teeth were longer and sharper than they should have been.

Grunting from the effort, and from a decent amount of anger at the Makuta and their accursed leech spawn, he slung the shadow matoran over his shoulder and sprinted back to the barrier. A shadow bolt hit the ground in front of him and caused him to stumble and fall head over heels. Recovering quickly, he shot a bolt of ice upwards, and froze another shadow matoran mid-flight, which plummeted like a stone.

Kopaka shoved the unconscious shadow matoran over the barrier, and climbed over it himself, rejoining with his two fellow Toa and Tanma. The Toa of Ice gestured towards the shadow matoran while trying to catch his breath.

“I found Kirop…I think he can help us out,” he panted.

Kopaka relayed his plan to them all, and took the shadow matoran to a cell in the Karda Nui caverns.

After a few agonizing minutes, they all heard Kirop groan and stir from his sleep. Kopaka exchanged a nod with Lewa.

“So, you think-sure this’ll work?” Lewa said, loud enough for Kirop to hear.

“Positive,” Kopaka answered, “Now we can get rid of all those creatures once and for all.”

“Great, let’s do it!”

“Just give me a few hours, I’ll tell the matoran what they need to do. Then we can strike.”

A blast of energy sounded around the corner. Lewa, Kopaka, and Pohatu peered around it to see that Kirop had managed to blow a hole in the cell wall and escape. The shadow matoran’s flight was frantic but awkward, and it was clear which direction he was headed.

“All thanks to my acting skills,” Lewa said proudly.

Pohatu chuckled, “True, you have been acting like a Toa for years.”

“You two are a riot,” Kopaka said, unamused, “Now let’s go.”

“We’re going too,” Tanma stepped in, flanked by Solek and another Av-matoran named Photok.

Kopaka sighed. “Okay, you can ride with us. The less targets the Makuta have, the better. Stay low, keep your mouths shut, and don’t get killed.”

The three matoran got on the three Toa’s backs, and the six companions blasted off after Kirop. While they flew, Kopaka scanned the skies with his kanohi. Strangely enough, there were patches of fog that even he couldn’t see through; it must have been some kind of product of the Makuta. But none of that was as strange as a tall figure that suddenly began approaching them from behind.

“We’re being followed,” Kopaka shouted over the howling winds. Pohatu and Lewa turned to see what he was talking about.

“Another Makuta?” Lewa asked.

“Doesn’t look like one,” Pohatu said.

“But they can shapeshift, right?”

“Yeah… but he hasn’t made a move to attack us yet.”

“If he makes a hostile move, we’ll deal with it. For now, keep your eyes on Kirop!” Kopaka said.

The shadow matoran’s wingstrokes were becoming stronger and steadier and had pulled him further ahead.

“Great, we’re losing him!” Pohatu said, and promptly blasted forward three times as fast as he was flying before. He stopped abruptly, hovering in midair with a dazed look in his eyes.

“Pohatu, what was that?” Lewa asked, trying to will his own aerial armor to do the same.

“I think that was me!” Photok said from Pohatu’s back, “I thought of going faster, then _bam_ , it happened!”

“Have you done that before?” Pohatu asked.

“Nope,” Photok said.

“Well, warn me next time!”

Kopaka continued scanning the skies as they all flew faster—thanks to their matoran riders—to catch up with Kirop. As the thick clouds dissipated, Kopaka could see the stranger from before. He was still pursuing them, but his stance was steady and calm. Who was he? He looked a bit like a Toa…

But soon his train of thought was interrupted by a massive winged multi-headed rahi breaking through a thick layer of clouds and beating its wings in the direction of the three Toa and their matoran riders. At Kopaka’s command, his fellow Toa modified their flights to avoid the pursuing creature, all while they desperately tried keeping an eye on Kirop’s back.

Before any of them could make a move to fight, the Toa-like stranger arrived on the scene, riding on top of a hoverboard, and stopped in front of the rahi.

* * *

Toa Ignika felt the stirring of the air as the great creature attempted to change direction. It was enormous, so full of life. Full of danger. Ignika could sense its primal rage. Its breath and vibrations were rapid and…full of fire? Toa Ignika still had a bit of trouble describing the things he observed. But he knew two things for a fact: this creature intended to harm these other living things, and at least three of these living things were Toa.

Toa. Like Matoro.

He knew he had to protect them.

He raised his hand to the flying beast.

Vibration. Heart. Heartbeat. He could feel it inside the creature. Life. As long as it had life, it threatened these Toa. So, its life must end.

Ignika focused on that source of life, that vibration, and sped it up. Faster. Faster. Faster.

A great shiver traveled from the creature’s snout to its tail.

Heart. Stopped. Cold.

It fell. Limp as a plant blown in the wind. No more life. Toa Ignika watched it plummet, all the while processing his emotions in that moment.

Relief. The Toa are safe now.

Sadness. There was life, and he took it away.

Thrill. He was powerful. This is why all those generations of fools sought him out when he was just a mask.

Eyes. Eyes were looking at him.

The Toa, and their matoran riders.

* * *

Kopaka was unsure what move to make. He exchanged looks with Pohatu and Lewa. What they had just witnessed was some kind of Toa stopping a large flying rahi just by raising his hand. He rode a simple hoverboard that looked like it was made of wood and jungle vine. He wore golden armor had long silver hair and large silver eyes. The new Toa stared at them blankly, like he didn’t know what to do next, either.

He made the decision. Kopaka waved him over. A moment passed where the newcomer didn’t seem to understand, but then he slowly drifted in their direction.

Kirop was a dark speck in the distance now. Kopaka and his companions sped up, the wind screaming in their faces while the matoran clung onto their back armor as tight as they could. Kopaka craned his neck to look behind him, and the new Toa had sped up as well, crouched on his hoverboard.

“And now we’re seven,” Kopaka mused.


	3. The Hive

Before any of them knew it, the seven companions could see a dark smudge in the distance, which became a large cocoon suspended from an immense stalactite the closer they approached it. And Kirop had flown straight into it.

The cocoon had a massive door on one side, which had begun to close as soon as Kirop entered. Even with their speed powered by the will of their matoran riders, the Toa only made it to the door as it slammed shut. They all pulled up to avoid crashing into it.

Kopaka stared up at the structure. It was made of what looked like stone, but the more he examined it with his kanohi, there was something about the material that made him wonder if it was stone, or something else…

Pohatu’s fist colliding with the thick door interrupted Kopaka’s analysis. The Toa of Stone frowned up at the door, and materialized several massive boulders around him. He bombarded the door, only succeeding in denting it slightly.

“Let me try!” Lewa piped up, pushing Pohatu aside. He summoned up a hurricane-force wind and blasted it into the structure. Still the door didn’t give. Meanwhile the fourth mystery Toa looked on, seemingly unsure of how to help.

Kopaka stepped forward, ready to blast it with ice, but Solek grabbed his wrist.

“Wait,” the matoran said, “Let us try.”

The Toa of Ice lowered his arm and watched as Photok, Tanma, and Solek held up their hands and summoned small beams of light from them, blasting the door off its hinges with surprising force.

The great door was caught and flung aside by a Makuta. This one was tall and slender, wearing a long coat. His jet-black hair was slicked back from his face, and his red eyes blazed with a mixture of intelligence and barely contained rage.

“Toa,” the Makuta hissed through sharpened teeth, “Always so noisy.” He whirled suddenly on Kirop, who was standing off to the side, stunned at the arrival of the Toa and Av-matoran. The Makuta backhanded him so hard he flew across the room.

“And _fantastic job_ leading them here, you piece of filth!” The Makuta raged. His burning gaze snapped back up to the Toa and their companions.

“Go, Solek and I will handle him!” Kopaka commanded, and Lewa and Pohatu, their riders, and their mysterious Toa ally blasted past the Makuta into the hive. The shadowy being made no move to pursue them, instead focusing on Kopaka and Solek.

“Go ahead, Toa,” the Makuta beckoned, his arms spread wide as the grin on his face, “Handle me if you can.”

Pohatu pulled ahead of Lewa, doing a quick scan of the inside of the hive. It consisted of miles of sticky, dripping tunnels, making him puzzle about the size of the interior as compared to the exterior. More than that, he couldn’t see any signs of shadow leeches or the vats the Makuta used to grow them.

He pulled to a stop, and Lewa halted just behind him.

“Something’s wrong,” Pohatu said, his mind reeling.

“But this has to be the place,” Tanma said from Lewa’s back, “They have to be here somewhere.”

“Did anyone else notice that the inside’s a lot bigger than the outside?” Photok asked, his eyes darting all around.

“I did hear the Turaga talk about the Makuta harnessing some kinda…dimensional gate technology?” Pohatu thought aloud, “Maybe we’re in a pocket dimension or something.”

“Aside from that, looks like we’re out of tunnel-path,” Lewa commented, pointing out the dead end ahead of them.

“Maybe our new friend knows something about all this,” Pohatu said, but when he turned around, the mystery Toa was gone, and in his place was a massive pale serpentine rahi with a slimy sheen on its scaly hide and a mouth full of far too many rows of teeth.

“Why can’t it ever be a small rahi-beast?” Lewa groaned as he and Pohatu braced themselves for a fight.

“Maybe it doesn’t mean any harm, we could just—”

Tanma blasted the creature with a beam of light from his staff, burning one of its beady eyes and causing it to shriek with pain and rage.

“Well, okay, then,” Pohatu sighed, “I guess we won’t take it easy…”

“To be fair, stone-brother,” Lewa said, readying his new spear weapon, “When have we ever met a peaceful rahi-beast with that many teeth?”

The four companions maneuvered in the air to get past the rahi, but it blocked the tunnel with its massive body. Lewa fired blades of air at it to disorient it all while Photok and Tanma shots beams of light at it and Pohatu attempted to pin it down with boulders.

All that any of them did was enrage it further. The rahi barreled towards them, snapping its massive jaws at them. It twisted around Lewa and Tanma, and fired a powerful shockwave from its eyes at Pohatu and Photok, who were blown across the tunnel and crashed to the floor.

“Dammit!” Pohatu grunted as he struggled to stand. “It’s tough, whatever it is.” Photok rose to his feet, wincing in pain.

“You’re a Toa, don’t you have some kind of strategy for this type of situation?” the matoran asked, exasperated.

“Sure, hit it until it stops hitting us,” Pohatu gave the matoran a playful smirk, and leapt back to his feet.

* * *

Toa Ignika was confused. Angry. These Toa allowed him to join them in battle. Then they decided to attack him out of nowhere?

It made no sense.

Did he do something wrong?

No. He did nothing.

Then, why?

Wind. Buffeted. Stone. Bombarded. Dodge. Don’t get hit.

He had life now. These Toa threatened that life.

Toa Ignika was disappointed. Matoro. Matoro was a Toa. Noble, a protector. These Toa were trying to hurt him. Matoro wouldn’t hurt him.

Anger.

They had no reason to hurt him.

He had to protect himself.

He had thought Toa were all noble souls. Like Matoro. He learned he was wrong. And the two little ones with them. They were bad also.

Toa Ignika lifted his hand. He could feel all four of their life essences. Pulsing. Vibrations. Heartbeats. He had to end it all to save himself.

He was the Ignika. The bringer and ender of life. He should not be harmed. He must protect himself. The ending of life was sad. But it was often necessary. He knew this well.

I am sorry Toa, little ones. But you must die now.

* * *

Solek had been knocked out in the fight with the Makuta, whose name they discovered to be Mutran, so Kopaka faced his opponent alone. As he parried each of Mutran’s attacks with his new ice blade, Kopaka formed a strategy in his mind, using ice both to distract his opponent and to glide around him and knock him off balance.

Kopaka readied a blow using his elemental power, but he hesitated. For a fleeting moment, the thought of using ice frightened him. He shook off the feeling. It was ridiculous and illogical. He was the Toa of Ice, he’s used the power thousands of times.

But what if he lost control?

Kopaka blocked another one of Mutran’s blows, but his technique was getting sloppier with each passing second.

_Just do it_ , he scolded himself, _what’s wrong with you?_

No, he couldn’t. It was too dangerous.

Mutran knocked his arm aside, and Kopaka nearly lost his grip on his blade. He stumbled backwards as he clumsily dodged Mutran’s attacks.

_I am one with the ice_ , Kopaka told himself, _why am I not using it?_

He couldn’t. He’d lose control. He’d coat all of Karda Nui in a perpetual frost. He’d doom hundreds of innocent matoran to a frigid death. Kopaka could feel icy fear grip his heart like he’d never felt before.

Mutran struck again, knocking him aside. Kopaka’s blade clattered across the hive’s floor. His mind fogged with irrational thoughts while he struggled to get back onto his feet. He still couldn’t muster so much as a snowflake. Mutran gripped him by the throat, lifting the Toa of Ice into the air.

“My job is to manipulate the physical form, but honestly,” Mutran grinned, peering into Kopaka’s eyes, “I enjoy dabbling in the manipulation of the mind even more.” Kopaka struggled against Mutran’s grip. The Makuta tossed him away, and Kopaka landed flat on his back, a lungful of air knocked forcefully out of him.

“You Toa are always so fascinating. Such fun little minds to play with. You, for instance, keep this cool, logical demeanor, but inside you’re swirling with emotion.”

Kopaka felt another powerful wave of terror grip his mind, paralyzing him. Intense pain wracked his skull, but even as Mutran stood over him, assaulting him with mental waves of madness and fear, he held his gaze even as his vision blurred and his eyes watered.

Kopaka slowly lay his head down on the floor, relaxing his body. He lay still, like he had given up. He stared hard at the ceiling, mouth slightly agape. He could hear Mutran chuckle heartily.

“I didn’t think it’d be that easy,” the Makuta mused playfully, “I thought Toa were supposed to be stronger than that. Oh well!”

Kopaka could hear the crackle of energy as Mutran charged up a shadow bolt to finish him off. He was just about to make his move when Solek shouted “NO!” and leapt in front of him, facing the Makuta.

Solek threw his hand up towards the shadow bolt, and a small but bright shield of light erupted from his palm. The shadow bolt bounced off and hit the wall behind Mutran. The Makuta looked about as stunned as Solek did at what just happened.

Kopaka leapt to his feet, and blasted Mutran with ice. Sub-zero winds and piercing snow swirled about him in a vortex, fueled by Kopaka’s renewed resolve.

Two other Makuta arrived on the scene. As Kopaka held Mutran in the icy vortex, he noticed that the new arrivals were the blind Makuta he and his fellow Toa fought when they first arrived on Karda Nui.

“It’s cold in here,” one of them said, “Could that be a Toa of Ice, maybe?” His voice was mocking, and his companion laughed.

“Take one more step, and your fellow Makuta is a solid block of ice,” Kopaka warned.

In the next instant one of the blind Makuta waved his hand and the entire tunnel was plunged into thick darkness. Kopaka’s concentration was broken, so his icy assault came to an end. He waved his arms about, trying to locate Solek. But a powerful shockwave knocked him off his feet, and he collided with a wall. Kopaka slumped to the floor, knocked out cold.

* * *

Pohatu had never felt weakness like this. This was worse than being hit by Brutaka back on Voya Nui. He crawled along the floor, every tiny movement took everything he had. His breath shortened and rasped unpleasantly. Pohatu could see Photok a few feet away from him. Dark circles were under his eyes and shallow breaths wracked his body.

“Le…Lew…” Pohatu croaked.

“Broth…Pohatu…” he could barely hear his brother Toa’s weakened voice.

Pohatu summoned just enough strength to bring himself up to his hands and knees. His heart was hardly beating anymore, and his breathing was becoming even more shallow and panicked.

He was dying.

Pohatu raised his head towards the massive rahi serpent. Was this its doing? What kind of creature…?

Then the rahi’s form dissipated. And there stood their mysterious Toa ally, whose silver eyes blazed as he held a hand up to Pohatu and the others.

“You…?” Pohatu croaked, feeling the weight of weakness forcing him lower to the ground. He could feel he didn’t have much time left.

“Wait…” Lewa said, a miniscule amount of strength returning to his voice, “All…all along, the rahi was an illusion!”

Despite the powerful weakness, Pohatu cried out, “We’re sorry! We…we didn’t mean to attack you! Please…stop…” and he sank into the floor, gasping desperately through his failing lungs.

And it was over. He took in a deep breath. His companions did the same. They all panted in unison, an intense relief overcame them all which incited laughter. The new Toa stared at them all, still looking rather tense.

One moment, Pohatu was overcome with joy that he wasn’t dead. The next, he charged towards the new Toa, and forcefully pinned him against the wall. The new Toa looked startled, but his silver eyes still peered into the Toa of Stone with rahi-like curiosity.

“Who are you? Why are you here?” Pohatu demanded, gripping the Toa’s shoulders with all his strength, “Don’t you dare try that again, or I’ll crush you. Got it?”

The Toa stared, eyes blazing with rage and confusion. Pohatu’s gaze dropped, and his eyes fixated on the markings on the Toa’s chest armor. He released his grip and took a step back. It took a moment or two, but his mind pieced it together.

“That’s…the Ignika. That’s the Mask of Life!” Pohatu cried, pointing at the stranger’s golden armor. Lewa bounded up next to him, his green eyes widening.

“By Mata Nui, it is!” The Toa of Air said, his mouth agape.

Pohatu stared at the face of the strange Toa, who hadn’t dared make a move to attack or run away.

“Who are you, really?”

But a high-pitched wailing sound exploded inside the tunnels, piercing through the minds of everyone in the room. The Toa and matoran dropped to the floor.

Lewa was the first to come to, and he found himself in a sitting position, chained to the slimy wall. His handcuffs were tight, and no amount of struggling showed any signs of them breaking. Pohatu and Kopaka were unconscious, chained to his right, and the mystery Toa to his left. The opposite walls were lined with large vats of greenish liquid, and within them swam thousands of slick black shadow leeches.

Lewa glanced all around; this was the same place they had seen the illusion of the rahi, and discovered their new ally’s terrifying power. The vats weren’t there before; how did they miss them?

“Just a trick of the mind,” the tall Makuta named Mutran said in an answer to Lewa’s thoughts, appearing on the scene with one of the blind Makuta in tow. “Much like the monster you saw instead of your ally.”

Lewa pulled at his chains again, all he accomplished was making his wrists hurt. The blind Makuta crouched down to his level, his cloudy sightless eyes staring vaguely in his direction.

“I know you’re thinking of escape,” the blind Makuta said, “But I’d advise against it. We have your matoran friends. Make a move against us, and I’ll send a telepathic message to my allies and they’ll kill the little ones. Understood?”

Lewa gritted his teeth.

“There’s an easy way out of this,” the blind Makuta continued, “We could interrogate you about how many more Toa are on their way, you refuse to break, and we’d be forced to kill you. And there’s a hard way.”

Mutran backed up to one of the vats, plunged his hand into the green liquid and pulled out a wriggling shadow leech. It screeched and squirmed in his grasp as he approached Lewa.

“We can assure you go down in matoran history as a monster and traitor. At least, as long as there _is_ a matoran history.” The blind Makuta smiled and backed away as Mutran brought the shadow leech closer to Lewa’s face.

The Toa of Air felt pure revulsion as the creature’s dripping mouth approached, mere millimeters away. He couldn’t show the Makuta his fear. But cold panic washed through his whole body and the leech made contact.

As this was happening, Pohatu was fully conscious, but deep in concentration. Focusing his power on the stone under the two Makutas’ feet, tiny cracks began to form. He had to work quickly, but quietly to avoid alerting their enemies. Lewa screamed.

Pohatu then activated his kanohi. As he split the rock under the Makuta, throwing them off balance for a few crucial seconds, Pohatu used his kanohi to vibrate the molecules of his body to a frequency that caused him to pass through the handcuffs that held him down. He sped through the hive, snatched the three matoran, knocked the two Makuta that were holding them off balance, and zoomed back to the room he and the others were being held prisoner. He crumbled the floor, and Mutran and the blind Makuta fell out the bottom of the hive.

He freed his friends, including the strange new Toa, and spread his kanohi outwards to all of them. As the other two blind Makuta burst in the room, Pohatu carried the three other Toa and the three matoran through the hive with blinding speed, striking and smashing the vats of shadow leeches as they passed. Then he rocketed them out of the hive, the screams and curses of the Makuta fading into the distance.

Pohatu grinned, surveying his allies. They all hovered in the air, carrying the matoran, all unscathed. He felt a hand on his shoulder. It was Kopaka, who smiled and nodded at him.

“Incredible,” Kopaka said. Pohatu’s grin got wider. He then turned to face the cocoon in the distance, cracking his knuckles.

“Okay, time to bring this sucker down,” he said, focusing his powers to crumble the stone keeping the hive connected to the stalactite. But the stone barely flaked away and seemed to regenerate as quickly as he tried to break it. “Or not,” Pohatu said, scratching his head, “It’s not normal stone. It feels kinda…organic.”

The mystery Toa pushed past him and Kopaka and raised his hand. The stuff holding up the cocoon crumbled under his influence, and he sent it plummeting down to the swamplands far below. Their Makuta captors were fleeing the hive on shadowy wings in the distance.

“We did it!” Solek said, awestruck.

“We made them angry,” Kopaka corrected him.

“That’s good, then!” Lewa piped up. Kopaka shot him a skeptical look, and he continued, “Mad-angry types get stupid. Stupid fighters beat themselves.”

“With our help,” Pohatu added cheerfully.

* * *

Toa Ignika observed the other Toa and matoran with fascination. They set up an ambush for the shadowed ones, emptying the village of Karda Nui of the little ones.

They waited for the shadowed ones to approach.

The shadowed ones were angry.

Toa Ignika didn’t like them. Their essence was all wrong. Not quite life. But not dead. They threatened those with true life pulsing within them.

The Toa waited on stalactites overlooking the village. The shadowed ones approached, bringing thick black clouds with them. They smashed things. They shouted to one another.

Makuta.

The word came back to him.

That’s right, they were Makuta. Beings of shadow. Enemies of life.

Toa Ignika watched as the other Toa launched their attack. He observed from a distance. Stone. Winds. Ice.

Shadow.

These elements clashed. Like a storm. Powerful. Both sides had great power.

He observed his Toa allies. The brown Toa protected the white Toa from a Makuta’s blow. Friendship. Love.

Things he knew were good.

The green Toa created a wind to save some of the little ones from another Makuta.

Protection. Protect the small and weak. That’s what Toa do. Noble.

Like Matoro.

The ebb and flow of the battle was fascinating. Like a raging storm at sea. The Makuta threw their shadows at the Toa. The Toa threw stone and air and ice at the Makuta. The little ones were swept away by the Makuta and then saved by the Toa.

The white Toa was knocked down. The brown Toa moved to his rescue. A Makuta saw this and made him fall. Fall far. Too far.

Toa Ignika knew this was bad.

He had to act. For centuries, battles were fought for him. Not anymore. He had power. He had life.

These Toa needed him.

He will save them.

Weapon. It materialized in his hand as soon as he formed the thought. The Makuta that made the brown Toa fall, he will be first.

Ignika directed his hoverboard towards the Makuta. Large. Pale. Eyes like fire. Icarax. He hadn’t been in the hive. He had come to help the other shadowed ones.

Hatred. Rage. Thrill. He could feel them all emanating from the Makuta. Ignika swung his sword, striking Icarax’s shoulder. It didn’t leave a mark.

“You’re the one Antroz mentioned. The one with the Ignika on his chest.”

His words were strange. What was Antroz? Icarax raised his fists in front of him.

“You’re coming with me,” the Makuta said.

Come with him? No. Toa Ignika will not. He prepared his blade for another strike.

“Oh, the strong and silent type,” Icarax said. His voice was mocking. Like Toa Ignika was nothing. Toa Ignika was not nothing.

Strike.

Toa Ignika’s blade passed straight through the Makuta, leaving a fraction of his shadowy essence in its wake. He struck with his blade again. It hit, colliding with the Makuta whose body was now harder than stone.

Strike. Toa Ignika was hit hard in the face. His feet left the hoverboard. Catch. His body dangled from it while he held on with one hand.

Rage. Like a storm.

No one touches the Ignika when they are not meant to.

Toa Ignika lifted himself back onto his hoverboard and raised both hands. Makuta essence. Not living. Not dead. It was wrong. But what if he could make it right? Make it weaker.

Icarax roared. Pain. Toa Ignika morphed his shadowy essence into an organic state. Organs. Muscle. Where there was none before.

Pain. The Makuta was in pain. His screams were like no other.

* * *

Pohatu’s fall was broken and the screams of Icarax reverberated through the air of Karda Nui. Steadying himself in the air, he and Photok’s combined will sped them back up towards the village, where Lewa was locked in battle with one blind Makuta and Kopaka with another. Before Pohatu could help his friends out, he saw Mutran rise from the rubble of the nearly destroyed village.

Hovering in midair, the Makuta drew in his energies, his red eyes flashed brightly for a moment, and Pohatu felt himself get swept away by an enormous shockwave. Shadows thick as storm clouds surrounded him and the others, and Pohatu was completely blinded. He could tell Photok was still clinging to his back armor, and he tried to keep them both steady as he lost all sense of direction.

When it all cleared, most of the Makuta had left, flying down towards the swamp miles below. Mutran was the last one to leave, and Pohatu dove after him, not before breaking off a piece of stalactite from the cavernous ceiling.

He stopped Mutran in his tracks, pressing the sharpened stone to his throat.

“I’d stay still if I were you,” Pohatu said. Soon Kopaka, Lewa, their matoran riders, and the mystery Toa joined him in surrounding their common enemy.

“Where are the Makuta going?” Kopaka demanded.

Mutran looked up at him, a wide grin splitting his face.

“Below. Hope you’ve said goodbye to your other Toa friends.”

He dissolved his shadowy form and drifted away. Pohatu, Kopaka, and Lewa exchanged looks and nodded in mutual understanding. Kopaka gestured towards Toa Ignika.

“Come on. The other Toa need us.”

Toa Ignika nodded silently and willed his hoverboard to follow them past the village on the stalactite and down to the swampy ground far, far below.


	4. Tainted Light

Takanuva patrolled the Metru Nui shores. In the weeks following Matoro’s memorial, he and the Toa Inika had split duties protecting the city and watching out for danger. There were a few scuffles here and there; a rahi attack in the Archives, a small invasion of strange beings called Frostelus in the north. And yet the more normal life became the more anxious he felt. And a familiar emotion had begun to stir within him.

Boredom.

He was so bored. Takanuva’s urge to explore was powerful enough that he had requested the Turaga to allow him to journey to find out how the Toa Nuva were faring on their quest. While he waited in agony for the Turaga to reach a decision about that, Takanuva’s mind burned with questions and desperate what-ifs. He wondered if he had been there with the Toa Nuva when they arrived on Voya Nui, or stood by the Inika when the Nuva fell, maybe things would have been different. Maybe they’d all be back home already, the day and the Great Spirit saved. Maybe Matoro would still be alive.

He shook his head, trying to dislodge the thought. But guilt crept into his mind again. He had not been able to help then. He had had no choice but to turn back to Metru Nui. Then frustration washed over the guilt. The Inika were back, so what was the harm of Takanuva leaving to find the Toa Nuva?

Something dark pricked the back of his mind. He stopped in his tracks. He’d felt something like it before. Turaga Onewa had told him once that it was another mind trying to interfere with his own. Takanuva closed his eyes, concentrating. He reached out with his mind, mapping out the city, looking for the source.

There. In the Onu-Metru Archives. That’s where it was coming from. Takanuva broke into a sprint. He passed matoran hard at work building and repairing structures. He leapt over pipes and statues, weaving through crowds of matoran workers, who did their best to give him room to pass. His mind locked hard on the dark influence in the distance, oblivious to everything else.

He was nearly at the entrance of the Archives when a black slimy creature leapt from a structure above him and landed on his shoulder. Takanuva shrieked in surprise and moved his hand to flick it off him, but he felt small but wickedly sharp teeth bite into the side of his neck.

He cried out in pain, and grabbed at its slick pulsing body, fear and revulsion pumping adrenaline through his veins. He managed to tear it off, making himself bleed a bit, and held it out at arm’s length. The creature looked similar to the thing Turaga Vakama had pulled from the rahkshi back on Mata Nui, but longer and spikier. Its body twisted around in his grip, and managed to get its teeth into Takanuva’s wrist.

As it latched on, Takanuva felt some of his light leave him. The pain was almost paralyzing. His arm grew colder. He could feel the first bite on his neck spread the cold up towards his face and down towards his chest. With all his strength, Takanuva flung the creature from his hand, and it landed with an unpleasant squishing sound on the ground. It began wriggling towards him, but he fired a powerful beam of light at it. At first it swelled like the light was feeding it, but Takanuva blasted it more until it burst and fried to a crisp.

Takanuva collapsed onto the ground, his heart hammering in his chest. His vision began to swim. The cold had spread a bit further, and in his last moments of consciousness, he looked at his hand, which was slowly turning grey.

_What a stupid way for me to go down_ , he thought angrily as everything went dark.

He woke up in a dark chamber—underground, he guessed—that smelled like rotting rahi carcasses. He sat up, his head throbbing. Everything hurt. He summoned an orb of light and could see the room was some kind of lab facility within the Archives, with tables and equipment piled in the corners of the room. The mental fog cleared when he remembered the creature that attacked him. He looked down at himself and his blood froze in his veins.

His armor was gunmetal grey, and his tan skin had faded to grey as well. His body felt a lot colder. He could still feel some of his light burning within him, but now it mingled with something else. Two beings he didn’t recognize stepped into the light cast by his orb.

The first was a tall and slender Toa of Water. She was scarred, probably from countless battles, on both her skin and armor. A long blue cloak was draped over her shoulders. She stared at him with pale blue eyes.

“Who are you? What’s going on?” Takanuva demanded.

“I am Helryx, leader of the Order of Mata Nui,” her voice was clear and strong as the ocean. But Takanuva was in no mood to awe over the newcomer.

“I’ve never heard of you…or the Order,” he said, slowly standing himself up.

“Then we have hidden ourselves well. As for what’s going on, it’ll take some explaining.”

“What about him? Is he in this Order of yours?” Takanuva pointed to the second figure. He looked like a Toa as well. He had white hair and grey and black armor. His eyes were yellow. Takanuva wondered what his element was, because he didn’t look like a Toa of Ice or a Toa of Earth.

“He is not, no,” Helryx replied, “But Toa Krakua here is a courier of sorts; he carries messages for us without revealing our existence. A very good use of a Toa of Sonics.”

“Okay…I must have hit my head pretty hard,” Takanuva groaned, rubbing his temples. A blast of water pinned him to the wall. Helryx’s pale blue eyes were full of fury.

“Try to take things a bit seriously, Takanuva. As we speak, the Toa Nuva fight for their lives, and you are the only one who can help them. But you can’t help them without the information we have, so sit down, shut up, and listen!”

Takanuva was shocked by her ferocity. And as a Toa he didn’t like being scolded. He met her gaze defiantly.

“Why me? I’m not so sure I can do much since something nasty bit me not too long ago.”

Helryx leaned closer to his face. “The Order only reveals itself in the most dire circumstances. And right now, we have need of a unique Toa, the kind that walks in both light and shadow.”

“But I’m not—”

“Silence,” Helryx snapped. She pushed down on Takanuva’s shoulder, forcing him to sit on the floor. She gestured over to Toa Krakua, who held a pale slug-like creature in his hands. Takanuva tried to swallow down his revulsion.

“I’ve had enough of slimy creatures for a lifetime,” he said, scooting backwards as Krakua approached.

Helryx’s voice became much gentler. “Don’t be afraid. It won’t hurt you. It has the means to give you what you need to save the Toa Nuva.” Takanuva glanced between her and Krakua and the wriggling slug. He sighed heavily, and let Krakua place the thing over his eyes.

“Watch and listen carefully,” Helryx said as Takanuva’s mind was transported somewhere else.

* * *

_Within a small circular chamber deep within the earth, six figures awoke. Six tall well-built beings wearing six different colored armor, all strapped onto tables. As each of them stirred, and their predicament became clear, each exerted their strength on their bonds. The first, clothed in red, generated enough heat to melt the metallic bands that held him down. The second froze and weakened his, shattering them. Then one by one each exercised a small amount of elemental power to release themselves from their slabs._

_They all stumbled to their feet, blinking, adjusting to the dim light of the chamber. As they made eye contact with each other, their expressions grew even more confused._

_“Who…who are you?” The one clothed in green armor said to them all._

_“That’s what I’d like to know,” The one wearing brown said._

_“I’m not so sure I know who I am,” The red one said._

_A voice reverberated through the room. “You are Toa.”_

_“Okay, great!” The brown one said enthusiastically. Then after a pause, “What’s a Toa?”_

_“You are a guardian. A protector. You fight for the weak. Each of you has been endowed with control of the elements, as well as another ability called a kanohi. With time, you will master your element and your kanohi, and both will lead you to your destiny.”_

_The one wearing white armor spoke up. “So, who or what are we protecting? What’s our destiny? And how do we learn to control our powers? And for what purpose? There’s too many questions, here.”_

_“Patience, Kopaka,” the voice addressed the white one, “All these questions will be answered in due time. For now, allow me to introduce you.”_

_A small light illuminated above Kopaka’s head. “This is Kopaka, Toa of Ice.”_

_One by one, a light came on above each being’s head and the voice told everyone their name._

_“Lewa, Toa of Air.”_

_“Onua, Toa of Earth.”_

_“Gali, Toa of Water.”_

_“Pohatu, Toa of Stone.”_

_“And finally, Tahu, Toa of Fire. He will be your leader.”_

_“Excuse me,” Kopaka interjected, “But shouldn’t we be able to choose our own leader?”_

_“I agree,” Gali said, “How do we know he’s qualified?”_

_“And what if he’s a jerk?” Lewa asked, the hint of a smile on his lips._

_A narrow jet of flame blazed past the Toa of Air and singed the wall behind him. Lewa stared hard at Tahu._

_“Careful with that,” he warned, “I might just wind-blow you away.”_

_“Just try it,” Tahu said._

_“So, we’re meant to be a team,” Kopaka addressed the mysterious voice dryly, “Then, where do we go from here? What do we do first?”_

_A panel on the wall slid open, revealing only a void of darkness._

_“I suppose we could start by going through there,” Onua said, pointing at the doorway._

_The six new Toa filed out of the room and walked out into a large dark chamber. They stood on a narrow walkway several hundred feet in the air, overlooking an immense empty pit. Suddenly above them, a ball of light flashed and took the form of a giant glowing symbol. It consisted of three circles of varying sizes encircled by two long curved shapes._

_“Your universe is guided and protected by the Great Spirit Mata Nui. In turn, you Toa are to be his protectors. What you are seeing is the symbol of his might and purpose.” The mystery voice said._

_“So, if he’s a Great Spirit, why does he need protecting?” Pohatu asked._

_“The universe is vast and dangerous. Should Mata Nui be struck down, it will be your duty to restore him to power.”_

_“So, what do we do in the meantime? Just sit and wait?” Tahu demanded._

_“You will learn all about your powers and you will train rigorously to fully control them. And you will aid the matoran as they labor and carry out Mata Nui’s will.”_

_“Sounds reasonable to me,” Pohatu said, “The matoran could definitely use our help, what with them having to…labor…and carry out a will and everything…”_

_His voice drifted off as everyone stared. Gali laughed softly._

_“It’s alright, Pohatu, you can ask,” she said._

_“Okay,” Pohatu said, “What’s a matoran?”_

_After a long day of training, the six Toa lay on cots under a large tent. The nighttime insects were chirping out a soothing melody and the air was still and cool. Gali stretched out her sore legs and grunted._

_“I never want to see that energy hound ever again,” she said, placing her hook weapons under her cot._

_“I thought I could outrun it with my kanohi of speed, but that thing just would not give up,” Pohatu said, half-amused._

_“At least your kanohi was somewhat useful,” Gali grunted again as she stretched her arms, “No need for water-breathing when there’s no water around.”_

_“I heard Kopaka’s the only one who passed the test,” Pohatu said, bringing the Toa of Ice to attention._

_“Really? How did you do it?” Gali asked eagerly._

_“I froze it,” Kopaka said._

_“You didn’t!”_

_“He did,” Lewa grinned as he practiced floating a few feet off the ground with his kanohi._

_“So, what happened?”_

_“Nothing,” Kopaka said, laying on his back on his cot._

_“Nothing?” Gali said._

_“Hydraxon commended him for original thinking,” Onua said with a smile._

_“Then knocked him flat,” Tahu added, sneering, “That was what, the sixth, eighth time?”_

_“I didn’t see you do any better,” Kopaka retorted, visibly bristling. Tahu opened his mouth to say something, his orange eyes blazing._

_“We all need to improve,” Onua said, diffusing the argument that was going to start, “Someday soon we’ll be up against real enemies, not just some trainer.”_

_“Hopefully then there’ll be less talking,” Kopaka muttered as he rolled over on his cot, his back to everyone._

_Lewa landed softly on the ground, and nudged Gali._

_“We oughta stick together,” he whispered to her, “Fire-brother and ice-brother might just get us all killed.”_

_The next day the Toa’s trainer Hydraxon had hidden away their weapons, and the challenge was for each to go find them. The Toa had split up to retrieve each of their own weapons, only to find them in compromising locations. Only after a few attempts at diving underwater to retrieve his axe, which Lewa found thoroughly unpleasant, it dawned on him that the Toa could work together to retrieve their weapons._

_In learning to combine their powers, the Toa learned their first lesson in unity. After the day was over, four of them returned to the shelter to rest. Tahu and Kopaka, on the other hand, both found themselves hiking up a mountain together._

_There was a thick air of distaste between them, and it only grew more bitter when they spoke to each other._

_“We could make Hydraxon take us there,” Tahu said, “Just a small show of force and he’d tell us everything.”_

_“That’s a great plan, not stupid at all,” Kopaka responded dryly, “We don’t know the extent of Hydraxon’s powers. We don’t even know who he works for. We came into existence two days ago, why the hell would he do as we say?”_

_An aura of heat surrounded Tahu for a second, causing his icy companion to break out in a sweat. But he diffused the heat just as quickly. “Then what’s your brilliant idea?” Tahu said._

_“Well, if I were you, I’d probably say that violence and destruction is the answer to everything,” Kopaka snapped._

_Tahu was about to retort when the two spotted the towers of a large fortress surrounded by armed guards just over the steep hill they were on. They both ducked for cover in an instant._

_“Think they’ll let us by if we ask nicely?” Tahu quipped._

_“I don’t know, think you can fight your way through them?”_

_“You’re not the only one who can come up with strategies, icebrain,” Tahu stood up from behind cover and raised both his hands. “Now get your hands up, we’re going in.”_

_Kopaka raised his hands reluctantly and followed Tahu as the fortress loomed closer. At last he figured out what Tahu’s plan was, and he nearly failed at suppressing a smile._

_The armed guards took the two Toa inside to see their leader. Tahu and Kopaka were led into a large room where a tall slender Toa was tinkering with a vehicle. She was battle-scarred yet elegant at the same time. She looked up from her labors and greeted the two Toa with a smile._

_“Like it? It’s a new design of mine. I’m not sure what to call it yet,” her voice was instantly recognizable as the voice that greeted the Toa when they awoke._

_“Who are you?” asked Kopaka as Tahu stared in awe at the strange Toa._

_“I am Helryx,” she answered, placing her tools down and striding towards the two of them, “The first of our kind. I saw the creation of you and your teammates.”_

_“We want answers,” Tahu said, “We have the right to them.”_

_Toa Helryx peered into both of them, her pale blue eyes holding many mysteries in their depths. “Then it’s answers you shall have. You six are well on your way to becoming true heroes. But know that the universe demands a price to be paid by each hero. Some must suffer, some must die. That is the price of having power.”_

_Tahu and Kopaka exchanged a puzzled look with each other. Helryx gestured for them to follow her. “Come, brothers. It’s time you learned what price will be asked of you.”_

_A few weeks passed. Tahu and Kopaka had not spoken of their journey to the others, instead they focused on their training. One time all six Toa were paired up by Hydraxon to spar with one another. They were not allowed to use their elemental powers or their kanohi. After each scuffle, Hydraxon would evaluate each Toa’s performance and give rather blunt suggestions on how to improve their technique._

_When Tahu and Kopaka were paired up to spar, Tahu got rather aggressive and injured Kopaka’s right eye. Hydraxon took Kopaka away for treatment, and when they returned the Toa of Ice had a new cybernetic eye that swiveled around and made clicking noises. Kopaka didn’t speak to Tahu for days after that._

_Finally, Hydraxon declared that they were all ready to start performing real Toa duties, so they were brought to a land called Karda Nui._

_It was located in an enormous cavern, with a ceiling so high that there was a sky with clouds above them, with some large stalactites poking through. On the vast expanse of grassy plains lived a large village of matoran. They were called Av-Matoran, or “matoran of light.” And they were under attack by loads of what looked like lightning bolts that flitted and sparked about in a way that made it seem like they were living, thinking beings. The Av-Matoran called them “avohka.”_

_Lewa and Pohatu rushed onto the scene, where Onua and Tahu were trying to fend off a small group of the strange entities. Onua had been struck, and was on the ground, stunned. Tahu was tossing ineffective fireballs at the avohka._

_At one point during the struggle, Lewa kicked up a ton of sand with his winds, and Tahu had blasted fire in the same direction, hoping to hit an avohka. What happened instead was the sand and the fire reacted and formed a new hard transparent substance that did not allow the avohka to pass through._

_“Let’s do that again, flame-face!” Lewa said._

_“Don’t call me that,” Tahu said as he positioned himself next to his Toa brother._

_“Aw, don’t be such an_ ‘ _ash’,”_ _Lewa laughed as Tahu rolled his eyes._

_With their combined powers, Lewa and Tahu trapped an avohka under a glass dome, and the other avohka dispersed._

_The four Toa congratulated each other, and Gali and Kopaka arrived on the scene, having won their own battle against the avohka in another area._

_“Hey, what’s that?” Lewa pointed towards a large silver dome in the distance. Kopaka and Tahu shot a look at each other, unnoticed by the others._

_“That’s…not important right now,” Tahu said, “We still have work to do here.”_

_“Fine, don’t come with me,” Lewa said, striding away from the group._

_“Lewa, no!” Tahu barked, causing Lewa to flinch, “Get back here!”_

_Lewa whirled on him, “I don’t have to order-take just because a spooky voice said you were the leader. I’m just taking a nice quick-walk to the mystery dome, and you can’t stop me.”_

_Lewa continued on his way before Kopaka froze his feet to the ground._

_“Tahu’s the leader and he says no,” The Toa of Ice said. Lewa flashed him a look of incredulity, but Kopaka was unmoved._

_They returned to the camp to rest. Tahu approached Kopaka out of earshot of the others._

_“Thanks. I could have handled it, but I appreciate the support.”_

_“We need to tell them about the Codrex,” Kopaka stated._

_“Not yet. We still have work to do here. When the time comes, we’ll tell them.”_

_“Fine. But I don’t like keeping them in the dark.”_

_The Toa of Fire and Ice entered the tent to rest with their brothers and sister._

_A month or so passed as the Toa fought the strange energy apparitions until at last Gali brought down the final avohka with a powerful blast of water. She let out a sigh of satisfaction, stretching her arms behind her. The Toa went around congratulating each other, and right after Pohatu praised Gali for her efforts, Gali noticed groups of Av-matoran gathered about, whispering excitedly. Soon, they all broke out in applause. The Toa waved and thanked them all, an air of confidence sweeping through them like a fresh breeze._

_As the celebration ended and the matoran dispersed, Gali’s gaze caught that of one matoran still looking towards her and her brothers. Smiling, Gali stepped towards him._

_“That was awesome! All of you are so incredible! How can I learn to do stuff like that?” the matoran was radiating excitement, bouncing on his heels. Gali laughed._

_“It’s a lot of work,” she admitted, rubbing a sore muscle in her arm._

_“Maybe I could be a Toa someday!” the matoran said._

_“Maybe you could. Maybe when the universe needs another hero, it’ll find a way to bring one into being.”_

_“Then I’ll have to make sure I’m the one it needs!” The matoran turned to leave, but then turned back towards Gali, and gave her a wide grin. “Just you wait, Toa. Someday you might hear of Takua, the great hero!”_

_“I look forward to that day,” Gali laughed, waving at Takua as he rejoined his Av-matoran friends. Soon Tahu approached, a grim expression on his face._

_“What’s wrong?” she asked._

_“Come with me. There’s something everyone needs to see,” Tahu left without another word, and reluctantly Gali followed._

_The group came upon the large silver dome Lewa had spotted a month ago. Tahu called it the Codrex._

_“What’s this?” Lewa picked up a floating round stone from its spot on a thin pedestal in front of the entrance of the dome._

_“Put that back,” Kopaka said sternly. Lewa shot him a look._

_“Why? I just want to look at it.”_

_Kopaka’s stiff muscles relaxed. “Okay, fine. But you can look at it inside. Go ahead.”_

_Lewa walked two paces ahead, stone in hand, and was violently thrown backwards by a force field surrounding the Codrex. As Lewa lay groaning on the ground, Kopaka stood over him, and snatched the round stone from his grip._

_“That’s why,” the Toa of Ice said. He replaced the stone._

_The six Toa entered the Codrex. Inside was a large dim chamber, much larger than the outside. The walls contained arrays of complex machinery. There was a door that wouldn’t open, despite Pohatu’s efforts._

_“Okay, I think I can break through this,” he said, drawing a fist back._

_“Pohatu, leave that alone. What we need to worry about is over here,” Tahu said from across the chamber. The Toa of Fire send a small flare upwards, illuminating the far wall in which six silver canisters were set. The Toa gathered around, staring at their sleek shiny surfaces._

_“What are those?” Onua asked._

_“Toa canisters,” Kopaka answered before Tahu could, “They’re transports built for us. Supposedly they’re the most advanced technology that exists.”_

_“Well, great,” Lewa said, his voice and face unsure, “So, where are we going?”_

_“Nowhere,” said Tahu and as if on cue the entrance to the Codrex slammed shut, making all his companions save for Kopaka jump. Onua pounded on the large metal door with his fists. The door refused to give._

_“Tahu, what’s going on?” Onua said after his efforts failed._

_“We can’t leave. Not for a long time,” Tahu said. His orange eyes were troubled._

_“So, we’re stuck here? We’re prisoners?” Gali said, her eyes wide._

_“More like we’re the emergency reserves,” Kopaka said, “Remember what we were told when we were awakened. If Mata Nui is struck down, then it’s our duty to restore him to power.”_

_“But couldn’t we, maybe, go somewhere else? Keep busy until we’re needed?” Pohatu was looking around at the vast, cold interior of the Codrex._

_“We can’t take the risk of getting killed. The universe may depend on us someday,” Tahu said._

_“The canisters will put us to sleep until we’re needed,” Kopaka added, “Then they’ll take us where we need to go.”_

_Pohatu approached a canister, and at his touch the lid unscrewed itself and left an opening big enough for him to crawl through. He stuck his head in, seeing more machinery on the inside, and in its center was a seat._

_“Great, there’s not even anything to read in here,” the Toa of Stone muttered._

_“You’ll be asleep, remember?” Kopaka said._

_The Codrex shook, and a muffled crash from outside rattled everyone’s bones. Kopaka looked alarmed and glanced at Tahu._

_“Think the matoran made it out in time?” he asked. The Toa of Fire looked grave._

_“I hope so.”_

_“What’s going on?” Onua glanced between the two, a realization passing over his face, “The avohka were just the start. Something worse is coming this way.”_

_“And you knew. You knew all along!” Lewa exclaimed, pointing an accusing finger at Tahu and Kopaka._

_Tahu pushed past him to open a panel on another wall. It revealed a massive window to the outside world, to Karda Nui, which was being swept up in a storm unlike any other. Clouds swirled in ominous vortexes, illuminated by bright flashes of light. The six Toa gazed out the window in pure horror at the sight of the ground shattering and burning at the light’s touch. Debris was whipped up by howling winds, forming more tight vortexes. The light seemed to brighten more and more, and all but Onua couldn’t tear their gazes away from the sheer magnitude of it. Thick crackling lightning bolts struck the sandy ground, creating towering spiked sculptures of glass._

_“Incredible,” Gali breathed, almost amazed despite how horrible it was._

_“It’s coming this way,” Lewa said, worry permeating his voice._

_“That’s why we need to get in the canisters right now,” Tahu said, sliding the panel shut and blocking their view of the outside._

_“So soon?” Pohatu asked worriedly._

_“The Codrex will protect the machinery in here, but only the canisters can protect us. The choice is yours: get in the canisters or take your chances with the storm.”_

_There was silence for a long moment, aside from the storm raging outside. Lewa stepped up to Tahu, his face hard._

_“Next time, no secret-keeping. Got that, fire-brother?” Lewa said. Tahu nodded to him, and the Toa of Air seemed to relax and step back from him. The six Toa lined up, each in front of a canister. They exchanged looks with one another._

_Tahu gazed around at all his teammates. As he met each of their eyes, an understanding seemed to pass between them all. They were in this together. And together they will stay for the rest of time, or at least until their destiny was fulfilled. This was what they had to do._

_Who knows how long they’d have to wait. Maybe they’d drift in a dreamless sleep forever. That thought alone was chilling to say the least, but millions of lives were depending on them. This was their duty._

_And so, each Toa climbed into a silver canister. The Codrex shook and rattled, and the crash of thunder outside got louder and louder. One by one, the canisters screwed themselves shut, sealing the six Toa safely inside with a hiss. The storm passed over the dome._

_Nearly 100,000 years the Toa spent sleeping inside the canisters. As they slumbered their memories of Daxia, Hydraxon, and Helryx deteriorated. Their experiences on Karda Nui reduced to nearly nothing. And by the time those six silver canisters hit the shores of Mata Nui, they had forgotten the storm, and the fact that when Mata Nui awoke, it would return._

* * *

The slug was lifted from his face, and Takanuva blinked. All his sensed returned, and he found himself back in the foul-smelling chamber in the company of Toa Helryx and Krakua. His mind reeled through all the things he saw; he marveled in particular at the knowledge that he’d met Gali on Karda Nui. And that he’d never been a Ta-matoran, but an Av-matoran. He had no memory of any of it, even after seeing it play out right in front of his eyes.

He looked up at Helryx.

“Now you know. We knew the Toa would lose some of their memories during their sleep, but not to this extent. They’re on Karda Nui right now, and they have no idea what needs to be done. Both they and the Av-matoran are doomed to die.”

“No, they can’t be!” Takanuva exclaimed.

“Obviously,” Helryx snapped, “Why do you think we brought you here?” Takanuva glared at her, but she continued to speak unperturbed. “They need to get out of Karda Nui as soon as the awakening process starts in the Codrex. You need to get there as soon as possible and warn them.”

“Why can’t one of your Order members do it?” Takanuva was over this Toa snipping at him and telling him what to do.

“You have the ability to fight the Makuta on equal terms with your power over light. While you face them, we can launch our attack on the Makuta base in Destral.”

Helryx’s face became grave, and she looked away from Takanuva. “The Brotherhood of Makuta already suspects our existence. One of our members Botar has already been killed. If his mental shield was breached, that can mean our other agents are being tracked as well. But one lone Toa may be able to make it to Karda Nui, undetected.”

“Okay, fine. I’ll go,” Takanuva said, “But what about the Inika? Who’ll help them defend Metru Nui?”

“That won’t be a problem.”

A titan entered the room. He was muscular, marked by many deep scars, and carried a long double-bladed sword on his back. He had long fin-like protuberances down his back and arms, and a breathing apparatus with water tanks on his back connected to two long tubes running up to the mask over his face. His eyes were also obscured by a blood-soaked bandage.

“Meet Brutaka,” Helryx gestured towards the titan, “As a member of the Order he’s had a…less than stellar record. However, I think the stint in a Pit cell has helped him see the light once again.”

“Doesn’t look like he can see much of anything,” Takanuva commented.

Helryx ignored him and clicked her fingers at Brutaka, who dragged forward another figure that was previously hidden in the shadows. He was a tall and slender armored being with a pair of claws for hands and narrow red slits for eyes.

“This is Dweller,” Brutaka said, his voice harsh and metallic through the breathing mask, “He was stationed here by the Dark Hunters to kill you. I stopped him before he could seize your mind.”

“Wait, Jaller and Hewkii told me about you,” Takanuva interrupted, “You betrayed your companion Axonn! And you almost killed the Toa Nuva _and_ the Inika!” He whirled on Helryx, who looked through him, “This is the guy you’re trusting to help protect Metru Nui?”

“Desperate times,” she said simply, “You don’t always get to choose your allies.”

Takanuva glanced between the two of them, at a loss for words. Toa Krakua spoke up for the first time. His voice rang like some of the percussive instruments Le-matoran were fond of.

“This will take you to Karda Nui. It holds some of Brutaka’s power,” he handed Takanuva a small drawstring bag. Curious, Takanuva peeked inside, and yelped in disgust, dropping the bag on the floor. Two large eyeballs with blue irises rolled out.

“What in Mata Nui’s name is wrong with you people?” Takanuva cried as Krakua bent to pick up the eyes and the bag they came in. He wordlessly dropped them back into the bag and handed it to the Toa of Light once again.

“Brutaka’s power will allow you to travel through a dimensional gate to Karda Nui. It’s a faster means of travel than even a Toa canister,” Helryx said, her long hands clasped gracefully together.

Takanuva took the bag from Krakua, though still held it out at arm’s length.

“You need to hold them in your hand,” Krakua urged. Takanuva stared at him for a long moment, then finally dumped the bag’s horrifying contents into his palm. A shiver of disgust rippled through him at the cold slimy feel in his hand.

“You’re all insane,” Takanuva muttered.

“It comes with the job,” Helryx said, a slight smirk on the corners of her mouth, “You need to be slightly insane to do what Toa must do.”

Takanuva looked down at the eyeballs in his hand. The blue irises faded to white, and when he looked up again a portal opened in front of him, a swirling mass of color within it.

“Good luck, Toa of Light and Shadow,” Helryx said.

Takanuva stared at her for a long moment, and stepped into the portal.


	5. The Swamp

While Kopaka, Pohatu, and Lewa fought their battles in the sky above Karda Nui, Tahu, Onua, and Gali finally made it to the swamp far below. It was vast and treacherous, shrouded in grey fog. The foliage was thick and twisted, poking their many branches and tendrils and roots out of the thick green and brown waters. Onua observed the sharpened end of the stalactite that held Karda Nui up on its flat end buried in the mud. He wondered, and worried, about the stability of the structure. All around were more giant stalactites staked into the muddy ground. Any of them could collapse at any time.

Gali could sense all kinds of things wrong with the water. Aside from the foul smell, they bubbled and churned with mutated living things. Upon closer observation, she could see that the swamp’s waters were also mixed with energized protodermis, the mutagenic substance the Ga-matoran and Ko-matoran had studied rigorously in Metru Nui.

“Don’t fall in the water,” she whispered to her companions.

A stiff breeze cleared some of the fog away, and Gali, Tahu, and Onua gazed out as far as they could see before more thick foliage obscured their views. There were patches of muddy land dotting the swamp’s surface, but the three Toa stuck to hovering above it all thanks to their aerial armor.

“The Ignika could be anywhere,” Onua commented.

“That’s why we should probably split up,” Tahu said, “If any of us run into trouble, send up a signal and then we can regroup.”

Onua and Gali nodded their agreement and the three separated.

As Onua searched, his mind was occupied by the Makuta. An entire race of ultra-powerful entities of shadow, hell-bent on destruction and conquest. He had read up on them in the Archives before he and his fellow Toa Nuva were sent on the quest for the Mask of Life. The Makuta had clashed with Toa for centuries, but more times than not, the Makuta had won. The few Toa victories over Makuta had been temporary. He and his companions and Takanuva had supposedly defeated The Makuta Teridax, leader of his kind, but based on probability, there was a chance that that wasn’t final either. His essence probably was still out there, and who knows what he was up to at this very moment.

More than that, Onua worried that the defeat of The Makuta on Mata Nui was all part of their plan somehow. That there was something bigger to all this, bigger than the Toa Nuva, all the matoran, and everyone that lived for peace.

Karda Nui, the most important site for the awakening of Mata Nui, the Makuta could have destroyed it by now. Instead, they were attacking matoran and draining them of their light. But why? If they don’t want to destroy the Great Spirit, then what was their real goal? What if he and his fellow Toa were playing right into their hands by going on this quest?

Onua landed himself on a dry island in the middle of the murky swamp waters, sitting on a rock to rest. His thoughts whipped about like a whirlwind, and with every passing moment he became more and more convinced that something about everything that was happening was wrong.

Then a loud buzzing sound broke him out of his thoughts. Up ahead was a larger-than-normal Nui-Kopen, a rahi hornet about the size of a Toa. Onua sprang to his feet and braced himself as the Nui-Kopen buzzed towards him. He activated his kanohi of strength, and he stopped the rahi’s advance with his hands, pushing it hard and sending it flying.

The Nui-Kopen splashed in the muddy waters, its insectoid legs twitching and its wings buzzing and beating furiously as it sank. A shutter wracked its whole body, and to Onua’s horror, its body began to morph. Its thorax and stinger lengthened, and long tentacles sprouted from its body. It rose from the muck, and advanced on the Toa of Earth once again.

_Gali was right_ , he thought, _there’s something wrong with the water here._

Just as Onua readied himself for another attack, he felt something strike him in the back. While it didn’t hurt, the next moment he realized he could no longer move. His mind screamed and his heart pounded against his chest, but he was paralyzed. Someone moved into his field of view.

He was grey-skinned, had tangled jet black hair, and lots of pointed teeth. He was dressed in tattered black and yellow armor. He had two longswords strapped to his back. His eyes were bright red, narrow, and full of sadistic delight.

The newcomer drew one of his longswords, and without even looking behind him, he sliced the Nui-Kopen clean in half. The rahi’s blood and mutilated body splashed into the swampy water and floated like debris on the surface. The Makuta smiled and excitedly scrambled forward, stopping mere inches from Onua’s face.

“Oh, fantastic! Looks like I’ve got my very own Toa!” he said, “Lucky you, Makuta Bitil’s brand new pet!”

Bitil’s eyes flashed brightly for a split second, then suddenly Onua was surrounded by twelve of the same Makuta, each one slightly different than the last. The original Bitil giggled and fixed his gaze on Onua. He narrowed his eyes to slits.

“Kneel,” he said, and Onua felt his knees drop to the ground all on their own. He couldn’t even move his eyeballs to stare his attacker in the face. All he could look at were all the pairs of nearly identical legs surrounding him. Bitil laughed again, and all his doubles joined in.

“Come, pet, let’s go see Krika.”

Onua felt himself rise from the ground and he helplessly hung in the air directly behind Bitil as the Makuta trekked through the swampy waters.

* * *

During Gali’s search for the Ignika, her mind was busy running through all the vague and fragmented memories of Karda Nui she hadn’t known she had lost. Looking around at the unforgiving and unappealing swamp, she could actually remember what it was like before; rolling hills and plains of grass and vibrant leafy trees. She could recall some of the Av-matoran. And for a brief moment, she remembered Takua.

The Takua she knew on Mata Nui thought he was a Ta-matoran. At the time it felt strange to her, but now she knew why. They had originally met here, on Karda Nui.

_Just you wait, Toa. Someday you might hear of Takua, the great hero!_

That’s what he’d said to her all those years ago. Gali smiled to herself. If only that Takua could see himself now.

Then she remembered climbing into the canister that put her to sleep. It hadn’t felt that long, but when she had woken up, everything was new. And now being back on Karda Nui, it frightened her how much it had changed. How long were her and her fellow Toa stuck inside those canisters? It’s true that they were needed in the off-chance Mata Nui were struck down, but what if they had been allowed to stay awake until they were needed on the island of Mata Nui? What could they have accomplished in that time? Was it really necessary that they needed to be shut away for so long?

Gali sighed, and let these worries float away. She had a job to do. She continued combing through the swamp with her vision, hoping to spot anything unusual, preferably the Ignika. A stirring of leaves made her jump and scan the area, but she saw nothing worth her time. Back to searching.

It wasn’t long before she spotted a dark-colored plant tangled around a jagged rock. The plant’s vines were wrapped around another rock, a small geometrically shaped one, like it was deliberately holding onto it. That had to be a keystone. Gali remembered that she and her Toa brothers needed six of them to unlocking the way to awakening Mata Nui. She was more than relieved to see that they were one step closer to achieving their mission.

She approached the plant, then upon remembering the story of the Toa Metru and the Morbuzakh vines, she made sure to keep her distance. She stirred up the swampy waters below her, and directed a small wave to wash over the plant, right in the spot that held the keystone. It didn’t budge on the first attempt, but after a few more water bursts, the keystone came loose, and Gali rushed forward and caught it in her hand before it could plunge into the mutagenic water.

Gali felt a prickling sensation on the back of her neck, and she whirled, tossing a wave of water that collided with something large, and sent whatever it was spiraling and crashing into a tree. Four clawed hands latched onto the tree, and Gali’s mysterious attacker stabilized herself.

She was tall, muscular, had four arms, and was clothed in tattered black and green armor, with grey skin and jet black hair. Her eyes were blood-red and her teeth were pointed. Gali identified her as another Makuta, and braced herself, summoning up her energies over the surrounding water.

But the female Makuta hit hard, punching Gali hard in her midsection, and the Toa of Water felt her back smash into a tree, knocking it into the swamp. She lay, fighting unconsciousness, as the female Makuta approached and stood over her.

“Gorast, Makuta of the Tren Krom peninsula, and mistress of the acid falls. Nice to meet you, Gali, Toa of Raindrops,” the Makuta sneered.

* * *

Tahu flew through the fog, scanning through tree after tree for any sign of the Ignika. He tried not to think of how the Mask of Life could be anywhere in this seemingly endless bog, all that mattered was that he and his teammates kept going. It didn’t take long before his eyes fell on a great silver dome trapped beneath a fallen stalactite, with swamp vines creeping along its smooth surface. Clearly it was no natural structure, but Tahu couldn’t think of who would build such a thing down here of all places.

If it was built by Makuta, there was no doubt in Tahu’s mind it was surrounded by traps. He activated his kanohi, surrounding himself with his shield. He drifted slowly towards the dome. His shield made contact with something, and that something sent a surge of energy through the shield itself. Tahu had no time to react. He was thrust away so violently that it took all his concentration just to keep his shield up as he slammed into a tree and knocked it down. His shield faded, and he dropped onto a patch of dry land.

His vision swam, and his attempts to push himself up failed. Tahu breathed hard, fighting to stay conscious as something ghostly rose out of the swamp meters away from him. Just then he started to feel the temperature in the area drop.

He blinked, and grunted, and found the strength to sit up. And his gaze fell upon the most bizarre being he’d ever seen. It stood on two long, thin legs, and had long spindly arms much like a giant insect. It had a long, narrow head with bony ridges running from its brow, over its head, and partway down its back. For a moment, it was white and translucent, then it solidified into a dark grey. It wore black armor. Its eyes were crimson.

The cold got infinitely worse the closer the creature came towards him. Tahu felt like ice was coating his body, inside and out, freezing his muscles in place. His body shivered, to no avail. The cold seemed to seep into his very soul, and he could feel himself weakening. The triangular, bony face of his attacker closed in on him, and Tahu was powerless to stop it.

“Do you know why we hate your kind?” its voice was whispery and frigid.

_‘We’?_ Tahu couldn’t ask the question aloud because it felt as though ice had coated his throat.

“The Makuta. We hate you Toa because you are everything we could never be,” it said, “This is why you must die.”

Tahu gritted his teeth. Through blurred vision, he watched as the mutated Makuta ghosted towards him.

* * *

Bitil walked for a long time as Onua hovered behind him, still paralyzed. They approached a clearing, and the Makuta stopped, scanning the area. All his doubles did the same.

“Krika?” Bitil asked in an excited tone, then his voice soured significantly, “ _Hey, Krika!_ ”

Onua realized that he could now move his eyes, and part of his neck. He started to feel his fingers twitch. It was a great relief to know that Bitil’s power had a time limit. Then he dropped onto a patch of mud at Bitil’s command. Onua remained still, as to not let on the fact that he was no longer fully paralyzed.

“ _Krika, I’ve got a fresh catch! Don’t you want to see it?!_ Damn that stupid ugly bastard,” Bitil muttered angrily, to the collective agreement of his doubles.

Onua’s eyes darted around, and fell on one of the doubles, who was a lot less mutated than the others, whose eyes wandered about like he wasn’t sure what was going on. With Bitil’s back turned, Onua seized the opportunity.

He put the Bitil double in a headlock, and twelve pairs of narrow red eyes snapped onto him. Onua’s hostage wriggled in his grip, but thanks to his kanohi, it seemed the Makuta double couldn’t break free. A dozen hands prepared a dozen shadow bolts, poised to strike.

“Don’t,” Onua barked, tightening his grip even more, “Or this one loses his head.”

All the Bitils remained still for a moment.

“I’m serious,” Onua said, “You want to see what happens to you doubles when the original dies?”

The Bitil Onua had in a headlock laughed, and broke free of his grip with little effort, and sent the Toa of Earth crashing into a boulder and falling into a patch of mud.

“We are not doubles,” all the Bitils said. Then the one that originally confronted Onua stepped forward. “They are all me, all from different moments in the past,” the Makuta said. Laughter rippled through them all as the twelve duplicates became twenty-four, then twenty-four became close to fifty.

“Neat, isn’t it?” Bitil sneered, “Instant army, whenever I need it.”

Onua knelt on the muddy ground, summoning the earth to obey him. He bowed his head in a defeated manner, baiting Bitil towards him. He felt the Makuta’s footfalls through the earth, then when he was close enough, Onua exploded the earth beneath him, sending himself rocketing upwards, and sending many of the Bitil doubles flying. All of them vanished into thin air and now only one Bitil remained, and he reeled from the attack. Onua then sent a shockwave through the air towards Bitil, sending the Makuta crashing into a thick grove of trees below. Onua had just enough time before the Makuta recovered to activate his aerial armor and blast away from the area.

A bright orange flash lit up the fog ahead. _Tahu,_ Onua knew immediately. He rocketed through the swamp in its direction.

* * *

Meanwhile, Gali was locked in combat with Gorast, who bombarded her with too many fists all at once. Gali blasted the Makuta with water, forcing her backwards. Gorast hit a tree but recovered quickly and leapt towards Gali once again. Gali dodged Gorast’s fists last minute and spun away from her. Gorast and Gali boxed each other for a while, dodging each other’s fists and occasionally landing a blow on the other. Gorast managed a solid punch to Gali’s face, and she landed on her back in a patch of mud.

As the Makuta stepped towards her, Gali summoned the moisture in the mud under Gorast’s feet, causing her to sink into it. The mud clung to Gorast’s legs, and soon she could no longer advance.

As Gali approached slowly, Gorast’s red eyes focused on her. Then the Makuta smiled, closed her eyes, and sank, disappearing completely under the mud. Gali ran up to the spot where Gorast sank, her mind reeling. _Did she…just commit suicide?_ Before Gali could wonder the possible reasons a Makuta would do such a thing, Gorast burst from the mud behind her and struck Gali so hard she went flying into another tree. Pain exploded inside her head, and Gali tumbled down onto a patch of hard-packed dirt.

She groaned in pain and rolled onto her side. She could hear Gorast approach her from behind.

“My life doesn’t matter. Your life doesn’t matter. Only the Plan matters,” Gorast said. Then a stabbing pain struck Gali in her back, and she felt a cold stinging sensation from that area. She grunted, feeling sweat break out all over her body.

Just when she was about to accept that it was all over, Gali hear a grunt of surprise from Gorast, the stinging sensation ended, and there was a crash of armor against rock. With great effort, Gali rolled over just in time to see Onua pin Gorast down several meters away. Gorast seemed stunned, so Onua pulled away from her and ran up to Gali to check on her.

“Are you okay?” Onua asked, his strong hand gently gripping her shoulder.

“I’ve been better,” Gali croaked, gripping Onua’s hand and allowing him to hoist her up. Her vision swam, but Onua kept an arm around her so she could stay on her feet. Gorast had also managed to stand again, but she didn’t look in as bad shape as Gali did. Her red eyes fixed on Onua, and her grin widened.

“So, this is the mighty Onua,” she sneered, advancing on them, “So wise, yet never the leader. You know, the Brotherhood could use someone like you. You might even become king of your own realm.”

Onua stood tall while supporting Gali. “I’d never consider an offer from you or any Makuta,” he stated, “Just because my armor’s black, doesn’t mean my heart is also.”

Gorast rolled her eyes, “Typical,” she said, and surged towards him. Onua summoned the mud from below and blasted Gorast with as much of it as possible. While Gorast fought through the muck, Onua scooped up Gali in his arms and flew away, continuing in the direction where he had seen Tahu’s flare.

* * *

Tahu had used up most of his remaining energy sending a fireball into the sky, hoping either one of his teammates saw it. He was running out of time fast, as the bizarre Makuta stood over him, its teeth bared. He could feel his energy draining fast as the cold threatened to stop his heart completely.

_Energy_ , Tahu realized. The Makuta was draining his energy, and the energy from the environment. That’s why it was so cold. No energy, no heat. So, with what he had left, Tahu began throwing off waves of heat from his own body. It wasn’t long before the water the Makuta was standing it came to a boil. The Makuta shrieked as its legs burned in the water, and it became translucent and drifted away from the frothing swamp. With a heaving breath, Tahu reabsorbed the heat, and with the cold gone, he now had enough in him to stand up.

A dark shape approached from the air. Squinting, Tahu could make out the form of Onua, who carried Gali in his arms. His chest swelled with relief. He’d never been happier to see his fellow Toa. He waved his arms, and Onua swooped down towards him. The Toa of Earth landed in front of Tahu, and gently placed Gali on her feet. She let out a long sigh, placing her hands on her knees.

Tahu glanced behind them, and saw two more dark shapes, instantly recognizable as Makuta via their grey skin and red eyes.

“You brought company,” Tahu said to Onua.

“It couldn’t be helped. Gali was weakened, and you don’t look too good yourself.”

“I might be able to hold up my shield for a bit, but…wait, what’s that?”

Onua and Gali looked in the direction Tahu was pointing. Another Makuta was plummeting from the sky, his shadowy wings tangled around each other. The other two Makuta stopped their pursuit of the Toa and banked to one side to intercept their falling ally.

“Here! Come over here, now!” a small voice urged from within a nearby clump of bushes. Peering through the tangled branches and vines, Tahu could see a matoran beckoning towards them. He, Onua, and Gali all exchanged a nod, and they ducked into the foliage.

The matoran led them through the swamp until they came upon a small clearing surrounded by interwoven lightvines. They had seen the lightvines up on the stalactite village of Karda Nui, which seemed to do a decent job keeping Makuta at bay. The next thing all three Toa noticed were the writhing matoran bodies on the ground.

Onua rushed forward to help, but the matoran that had led he and his teammates there blocked his advance.

“Please, don’t interfere. It’s their time,” the matoran said.

“Their time for what?” Gali asked as she pushed past them both. She knelt by the nearest matoran, who curled up into a ball, and his body expanded rapidly, causing Gali to jump back. The matoran’s body hardened and became sleek and shiny, morphing into a large insectoid shape. An insectoid shape Gali and the others knew all too well.

“A… Borok?” Gali said in a near whisper. The lead matoran nodded, not looking all that upset about the fate of his fellow matoran.

“It is the way of things,” he said simply. Gali backed away from the creature, which made a sickening chittering noise with its new mandibles. Tahu managed to swallow down his revulsion to speak.

“So what you’re saying is…all Borok were once matoran?” he asked.

“As Borok, we serve the Great Spirit just as you do. Through our transformation, we truly can become your brothers.” The other matoran on the ground completed their metamorphosis as well, and three new Borok stood, clicking their claws together. Before the Toa’s eyes, the three of them vanished.

“Where’d they go?” Gali asked.

“To join the others. They now have a new role to play. As do you,” the matoran dug into a pouch he carried and held out a keystone to Tahu. “I believe this will help.”

Tahu took it, nodding to the matoran respectfully.

“You need all six keystones to get into the Codrex. Once inside, you’ll know what to do.”

Tahu searched the matoran’s eyes. “Codrex?” he asked, all while a spark of familiarity flickered in the back of his mind.

“Yes,” the matoran said, gesturing towards the direction where Tahu had discovered the large silver dome in the swamp, “It’s the place of your beginning, and your probable end.”

The matoran stepped backwards, and his body began to shake and morph like the others. Soon in his place stood another Borok, who vanished in the same manner as the others. Tahu sighed, a hollow feeling in his chest. He hadn’t even gotten the chance to ask that matoran’s name, and now he no longer had one.

He bitterly wondered if all this sacrifice really served a greater purpose. He wondered why a benevolent Great Spirit would ask so much from ones so small. Did their lives even matter to him? Did he even know they existed, and did he even notice when they were gone?

Why such a high price for peace?

Tahu exchanged grim looks with his companions, then the three of them left the clearing. No time for more worrying and speculation, they still had a job to do. Up ahead, it looked as though something tore a clear path through the swamp foliage. The whole thing stunk of Makuta.

“A trap,” Onua stated.

“Most likely,” Tahu agreed, “But, if the Makuta have the Ignika, this will lead right to them.”

“So, what, we charge into their trap and fight our way out of it?” Gali asked, crossing her arms in front of her chest.

“Sort of,” Tahu said, grinning at her, “I have a surprise for them.”

Gali didn’t have long to wonder what that was. The three Toa followed the path of destruction and came upon an encampment built of the wood and vines from the swamp. Nobody was in the immediate area, but she had a feeling the Makuta were close by, watching them. Nearby the encampment was a clearing and lying on a mound of packed earth was a keystone. Onua picked it up.

Then Tahu pushed Onua and Gali down to the ground, and protected their bodies with his own. A massive fireball erupted above them, spitting long tendrils of flame in all directions. They heard a scream, a Makuta perhaps. Tahu allowed them both to stand and the three of them sprinted back towards the swamp foliage.

But their escape was blocked by the three Makuta: Bitil, Gorast, and the long thin one called Krika.

“I’m disappointed in you, Toa,” Krika rasped, “That little distraction may have worked on lesser beings, but not Makuta.”

Just as the three Makuta fired their shadow vortexes at the three Toa, Tahu summoned his shield to surround him and his companions, deflecting them. Krika smiled a lopsided toothy smile.

“If you insist, we can test to see just how long you can hold that shield up.”

“Or we can batter the shield down now and kill them all,” Gorast said, spit flying from her mouth.

“Excuse her,” Kirka said, “But she does have a point. Every minute wasted on you is a minute wasted looking for the Mask of Life.”

The knowledge that the Makuta had not found the Ignika yet brought a smile to Tahu’s face. “Well, you’re too late,” he said, “We already have the Ignika. It’s above, with Pohatu and the others.”

“An obvious lie,” Bitil spat, “One I can easily confirm with our brothers above.” The Makuta closed his eyes in concentration, then let out a gasp.

“What? _What?_ ” Gorast demanded.

“Speak up, Bitil,” Krika said through his teeth. Bitil’s red eyes opened, full of confusion.

“The Ignika…it’s alive. And it’s fighting alongside the other Toa! He got…he got Icarax.”

“Time to go!” Tahu said, and with no time to wonder about what Bitil meant by the Ignika being alive, he and his two companions blasted off with their aerial armor. They headed in the direction of the Codrex.

“So, we’re leading them right here?” Gali asked.

“That’s the plan,” Tahu said, swiftly ducking for cover under a thick canopy of tree branches high above the area. Gali and Onua took similar positions all around the Codrex, and they lay in wait for the Makuta to arrive.

Soon they did, circling the Codrex cautiously. They must have known about its protective force field because they kept a respectable distance from the great silver dome. Then a ball of flame soared across the clearing and struck Krika on the arm. The Makuta screeched in pain as his arm sizzled from the heat. On that signal, Onua opened the muddy earth underneath Bitil, causing him to sink out of sight within seconds. Gali formed a sphere of water around Gorast’s head, who began choking. The three Toa soared over their opponents, blasting them with elemental power.

Krika shot a shadow bolt at Gali, which grazed her shoulder and caused her to jerk to one side, swerving off her original flight path. Her concentration broken, the water sphere around Gorast dissolved, and the female Makuta coughed and spat out water on the ground.

“Gorast, go get Bitil!” Kirka shouted. Just as Gorast started to move, Onua dove in her direction and caused disruptions in the mud to trip her up and toss her about. Meanwhile Tahu shot powerful tongues of flame in Krika’s direction. The thin, long-legged Makuta became intangible and the firebolts passed through him.

Bitil had managed to climb out of the mud and shook the muck off himself. He summoned his shadow wings, and began to pursue Gali. But Gali was ready; she spun and corkscrewed in the air, firing jets of water at the Makuta, who swerved and flipped out of the way. One blast hit him square in the chest, and he spun out, hurtling back towards the swamp below.

But before he hit the water, Bitil pulled up and beat his shadow wings up towards Gali. His eyes flashed, and two of his duplicates appeared on either side of her and grabbed each of her arms. Gali tried to wrench free, but the two Bitils managed to send her hurtling at terminal velocity towards the swamp.

Luckily Onua had spotted this, and threw his hands up, forming an earthen slide to catch Gali and slow her fall. Gorast then jumped Onua from behind and pinned him to the ground. The earthen slide crumbled, but Gali had recovered enough to take flight once again.

Onua wriggled under Gorast’s grip. The Makuta leaned close to his face, her sharp teeth baring down on him.

“Come, Toa,” she whispered, “Let me feast on your light.”

Onua wrenched his arms free and tossed her off him. He leapt to his feet, and both he and Gorast threw a punch at each other at the same time. Their fists collided and caused a slight shockwave in the air. They both stumbled backwards a pace, and before Onua could react, Gorast kicked him across the clearing. Onua hit a tree branch but managed to catch hold of it before he could plunge into the mutagenic water.

Tahu threw more fire at Krika, who deflected it with an equally large shadow vortex. The elements collided and dissipated. With each blast of elemental energy, Tahu felt his desperation grow. He had thought they could finish off the three Makuta down here before they entered the Codrex, but it seemed that their enemies were far too capable.

“You know this is pointless, Toa,” Krika hissed as they reached a stalemate, each one waiting for the other to make the next attack. “You see, my companion Bitil tinkered with the Codrex’s forcefield. In a few minutes it’ll implode, and everything you need to awaken the Great Spirit will be gone.”

Tahu considered using a Nova Blast to send Krika to oblivion. His old self may have done it, too. But he knew better now. Instead, he smiled.

“You’re bluffing.”

“Am I?” Krika looked amused.

“Of course,” Tahu said, “You wanted us to find that keystone. You want us to get into the Codrex. If you didn’t, you had plenty of time to destroy it before we arrived.”

“Ridiculous,” Kirka spat, his mutated face hardened. Tahu couldn’t decide if he had guessed right or not. But that didn’t matter right now. Before Krika could make another move, Tahu absorbed the heat from around the Makuta, quickly icing him over and slowing him down. Krika attempted to use his power to become intangible, but he only accomplished this halfway, as the tangible parts of his body were nearly frozen solid.

And the Makuta began to laugh.

“What’s so funny?” Tahu demanded.

“Look behind you,” Krika rasped.

“Like I’d fall for that.”

Krika stopped laughing. “There really is something behind you.”

Tahu turned to look against his better judgement, and his heart sank when three new Makuta arrived on the scene. It was the three blind ones, all ridden by shadow matoran.

“Gali! Onua! Take cover!” Tahu cried, but before he knew it, a shadow blast freed Krika, and the Makuta struck him in the face, sending him hurtling backwards. Soon he, Gali, and Onua were surrounded by six Makuta, all cackling and charging up their shadow energies.

Tahu glanced over at his two companions.

“Let’s take as many down as we can,” he said. Both Onua and Gali smiled in agreement.

Before any could make a move, a cold wind ripped through the clearing, and all the Makuta’s hands were frozen solid, blocking their shadow energy from escaping.

Tahu’s soul soared as Kopaka arrived on the scene. On his back rode Solek, and right behind him were Pohatu and Lewa, both being ridden by Photok and Tanma respectively. He exchanged another look with Onua and Gali. They all fist bumped one another, and they flew up to join their brothers in battle.


	6. The Kingdom

Interdimensional space was cold, colder than anything Takanuva ever felt. But it was strangely beautiful. Splashes of bright color swirled around themselves and blended in combinations he never thought possible. Tiny stars dotted the vast expanse. Takanuva hurtled past clouds of color that contained quick glimpses of other worlds, sprawling cities, tiny villages, great oceans and jungles and mountains. He saw faces, some of which he thought he recognized, but they were gone before his brain could register.

He looked down at the pair of eyeballs in his hand. The irises were still whited out. He hoped with his entire being that they were working properly. Soon, a portal opened in front of him, and before he could brace himself, Takanuva was flung onto the hard rocky ground. He groaned in pain and rose to a sitting position, tucking Brutaka’s eyes into the pouch on his belt. And he was struck with awe and confusion.

The sea and skies of Metru Nui were pale and silvery, but this place resembled Mata Nui with its vibrant blue sky and sparkling blue sea. Takanuva rose to his feet and turned around. He was met with a vast gleaming metropolis with building reaching up to the blue sky. There were a variety of architectural styles, with the sleeker Metru-Nui styled buildings closer to the heart of the metropolis and rugged, more natural buildings of wood and stone on the outskirts.

Takanuva began to walk, observing the shoreline. Was he going crazy, or did it look a lot like the beaches of Ga-Wahi?

“Hey, who are you? Where did you come from?”

The familiar voice made him jump and he turned to see Macku staring up at him suspiciously.

“Macku, hey!” he said, but his smile vanished when her gaze grew confused and she took a step back.

“Have we met? I swear I’ve never seen you in my life,” Macku said.

“I’m…I’m Takanuva,” he said.

“No you’re not,” Macku scoffed, folding her arms across her chest, “You don’t look like a Turaga to me. Try again. Unless you’d rather I called the Hunters.”

“Turaga? Ah, I mean…I,” Takanuva laughed nervously, “I just need to find Jaller, do you know where he is?”

“Why? How do you know Jaller?”

“Um, it’s uh…”

“Look, ‘Toa Takanuva,’ I can’t help you out until I know you’re not a Makuta imposter. Follow me. Stick close, or I’ll call the Hunters on you,” Macku strode towards the metropolis. Takanuva trailed behind her, staring up at the buildings that rose before them. The streets were packed with matoran workers, piles of cargo, and transports. Takanuva nearly jumped out of his skin when a Borok emerged from around a corner and skittered away. Macku pulled on his arm.

“What, never seen a Borok before?” she said with mild amusement.

“I have,” Takanuva said, swallowing.

“Well you can relax. They mostly do demolition work. They don’t bite.”

Takanuva didn’t respond, as they passed by a stand run by a Vortixx that was selling cheap trinkets to matoran passers-by. Further down the block was a plaza in which a lone skakdi had a stage set up with rahi beasts chained to a wall.

“Five widgets only! Come see the feats of the beasts of the land! Five widgets, any takers?” the spiked being called out.

Takanuva followed Macku until they came upon a small outpost in front of a building that resembled Metru Nui’s Coliseum. From the outpost emerged a tall and muscular titan with dark skin and grey hair. He carried a massive battleaxe on his back. Macku waved cheerfully at him.

“Axonn, I need you to check this one out,” she said, gesturing towards Takanuva, “He calls himself ‘Toa Takanuva.’”

The titan approached Takanuva, his green eyes peering into him. After only a moment, Axonn turned to Macku.

“He’s no shapeshifter. And he really does believe he is Takanuva.”

“So, he’s just crazy. Good to know!” Macku laughed. Axonn wasn’t amused. He looked over Takanuva one last time.

“I’m not so sure,” the titan said, “He’s not even from this world.”

“Really,” Macku said, looking up at Takanuva, a spark of interest in her blue eyes. Takanuva sighed, annoyed.

“So, now that I’ve been scrutinized, can I please see Jaller?” he said.

Axonn took Takanuva’s light staff from his back.

“Hey!” Takanuva said, making a grab for it.

“I need to confiscate this,” Axonn stated, “Turaga Takanuva doesn’t like weapons in the streets.”

Takanuva’s mind went into spirals at hearing the name “Turaga Takanuva,” and Macku had to grab his arm again and lead him down another street. Takanuva shook off the vulnerable feeling of being without his weapon, and observed all the strange sights around him. Borok working alongside matoran. Matoran buying and selling goods with Vortixx, skakdi, and other sentient species he didn’t know the names of. Toa and Dark Hunters patrolled the streets like the Vahki enforcers of old Metru Nui. There were relief carvings on the walls of some buildings that depicted great battles, some of which looked familiar to him. He caught a glimpse of the Mask of Life in a few of them.

“Toa Jaller, you have a visitor!” Macku called, bringing Takanuva out of his thoughts. Sure enough, there was Jaller, in his Toa form, though his armor was much more ragged looking. He peered at Takanuva, circling him.

“He—hello,” Takanuva said.

“Hello yourself,” Jaller said, his voice full of more interest than suspicion, “What brings you here…ah…”

“I’m Takanuva.”

“Oh, I see,” Jaller laughed softly.

“Axonn checked him,” Macku spoke up, “At the very least we know he’s not a Makuta.”

“Right then. What can I do for you?”

“Tell me about this place. Where are we? Because it looks a lot like the island of Mata Nui…but with more buildings.”

Jaller laughed, “Well, it was called Mata Nui nearly 10,000 years ago. Nowadays it’s known as The Kingdom of the Great Spirit.”

“How? Why? What happened?” Takanuva felt curiosity well up inside him.

“You’ll learn all you need to know over there,” Jaller pointed over to a massive wall in the center of another plaza covered in writing and carvings. “You know, I’m sure I’ve never met you, but you seem familiar somehow.”

Takanuva knew this was not the Jaller he knew in his world. But he wanted to tell him everything. About how he was really Takanuva, the Toa of Light, and that they were best friends in his world. But he decided against it, as to not scare Jaller or get himself arrested.

“Well, Turaga Takanuva told me what a great friend you were…the one time I met him,” Takanuva said.

“That’s nice to hear,” Jaller said, “The Toa Inika haven’t been all that popular, even after all this time. In fact, no one has seen Matoro in several thousand years.”

Takanuva felt a jolt in his chest at the mention of Matoro’s name. In his world, they had built a massive statue of him holding the Mask of Life in the square outside the Coliseum to honor his sacrifice. But he was still around in this world?

“Thanks, Jaller,” Takanuva said, nodding his head to the Toa of Fire, and jogged towards the Wall of History in the nearby plaza. He was relieved that neither Jaller nor Macku ran after him; he wanted time to himself to learn the history of this Kingdom.

His eyes scanned the Wall, seeing a lot of familiar history from his own world. Further down, he read of the Inika’s exploits on Voya Nui, then in the sea below it, and that’s when a major difference from his world came to light.

There was a carved depiction of Toa Matoro, with a blackened Mask of Life in his hands. The text underneath it told of how the Toa of Ice, now referred to as The Disgraced One, had hesitated a few seconds too long, and was shut off from the Core of the Universe. The Great Spirit Mata Nui died. Under that was a carving of a massive migration of all species from the dying Matoran Universe. They arrived back on the island of Mata Nui and built this great metropolis. Not everyone made it, but thanks to the guidance of the Turaga of Metru Nui and the Order of Mata Nui, most did.

The Makuta attempted to follow the other species, but Toa Takanuva and the Order set up a light barrier to keep them underground. The shadowy beings have not been seen since. Takanuva’s destiny was fulfilled, and he sacrificed his Toa power to become a Turaga. He passed his power down to a new generation of Toa: Kapura, Balta, Dalu, Velika, Defilak, and a new Toa of Light named Tanma. Turaga Takanuva ruled the new mega-city with a council of representatives from many different species, including (much to Takanuva’s surprise) Roodaka, and Helryx, the leader of the Order of Mata Nui.

Takanuva stood back from the wall. In this universe, Matoro had failed. Mata Nui died. But look at what was built as a result! Looking up to the sky, where the buildings stretched as far as his eyes could see, Takanuva felt a swelling of pride. All these species living together in harmony, and look at what they accomplished! He desperately wanted to meet his alternate-universe self.

He jogged back towards the building that looked like the Metru Nui Coliseum. While a few Dark Hunters gave him weird looks, no one tried to stop him. And when he approached the main gates, there weren’t any guards. He walked up to the entrance. A speaker system crackled to life above his head.

“Welcome to the Coliseum, state your name and your business,” Takanuva recognized Helryx’s voice immediately. She sounded much more pleasant and personable than in his world.

“I’m…a friend,” he said, “I’d like to see the Turaga, please.”

“Does this friend have a name?” Helryx asked.

Takanuva sighed, “Okay, look, my name is Takanuva. I know I’m not the Turaga Takanuva, but I am Takanuva. Uh…”

Helryx was silent on the other end. Takanuva racked his brains.

“I know Helryx. She sent me on a mission to assist the Toa Nuva in Karda Nui. She sent me through an interdimensional portal, and now here I am.”

Silence for another moment. Takanuva felt like he was minutes away from being sent to an asylum. But the doors in front of him swung open and there stood a titan even taller than Axonn with silver armor and reflective silver eyes. He gestured for Takanuva to enter, and led him through a series of hallways, up an elevator, and soon the two arrived in a small council room in which a lone Turaga was in conference with Roodaka and another Toa of Light, who Takanuva guessed was Tanma.

At their arrival, the Turaga turned towards them and when his blue eyes met Takanuva’s blue eyes, Takanuva felt potent confusion as he stared at another version of himself. This was Turaga Takanuva. He was weathered, his white hair was long and tied back from his face and he had a short beard. He wore white and gold Turaga robes and carried a staff a lot like his Toa-self did. Takanuva was seeing his Turaga-self right in front of his own eyes, and he couldn’t formulate a single word.

“Now this is something you don’t see every day,” the Turaga chuckled heartily. Takanuva managed a nervous smile. Then, he noticed the table in the center of the room on which sat the severed head of a rahkshi.

“Uh, hello,” Takanuva said formally, “I’ve come to speak with…you.”

“And what’s your name?”

“Uh, I’m Takanuva.”

The Turaga laughed, “I thought you looked familiar.”

“Just…I just wanted to say…great job with the migration and the city and stuff, it’s really quite incredible! The architecture is impressive, and all the species living together, and…” Takanuva swallowed to make himself stop rambling, “Anyway…”

“You’re from another world,” Turaga Takanuva said.

“That’s right!” Takanuva said, “Where things worked out…differently. It’s not as peaceful as it is here. You did a great job, I’m proud of me.”

The Turaga’s warm smile faded, and his gaze wandered back to the rahkshi head on the table. “It seems the peace won’t last long. This rahkshi was found wandering near the Piraka fountain. The Hunters took care of it, but what worries me is how it got there in the first place.”

Toa Tanma spoke up. “The light barriers should have stopped it, but it must have slipped through before they went up.”

“Or maybe the light barriers are breaking down,” Takanuva offered.

“Perhaps,” Turaga Takauva said, stroking his beard, “But that’s not the only concern here. The island itself is weakening. The landmass won’t last too much longer. We will have to move the Kingdom elsewhere sometime in the near future.”

“Where will you go?” Takanuva asked.

“Another island, most likely,” Roodaka said, “Or the stars. It depends on if Nuju and Nuparu’s project is successful.”

“In the meantime, if the light barriers are going down, they need immediate attention. For as long as we’re here, the Makuta cannot be allowed to enter the Kingdom,” Turaga Takanuva stared into Toa Takanuva’s eyes, “I know this isn’t your world, and that you have your own mission to carry out. But we could use your aid. Would you stay to help at least?”

Takanuva smiled at his Turaga-self, “Of course. But…I could use my light staff back.”

“That weapon went out of style a millenia ago,” the Turaga chuckled, “I can get you something better. Roodaka? You are dismissed.” Roodaka bowed her head respectfully and glided out of the room. “Tanma, please come with us.” The other Toa of Light nodded wordlessly and followed the two Takanuvas out of the Coliseum and through the streets.

They arrived at a small non-descript building of stone near the opposite shore of the island. The front entrance had no knob or handle. Turaga Takanuva stepped forward and rapped on the door with his staff. A small panel slid open and a pair of brown eyes peered through the opening.

“Password.”

“This is Turaga Takanuva. Open up.”

“Wrong. Try again.”

The Turaga sighed and gave a look to Toa Takanuva. “Nynrah ghosts,” he said in an exasperated tone, then turned back to the door. “How about, I’ve got a squad of Borok with nothing to do. If you don’t open this door, I can have them tear the place down and build a park in its stead.”

There was a pause.

“Close enough.”

The panel closed and the door swung open. The Turaga and two Toa walked through several twisting hallways until they arrived at a workshop cluttered with building materials, tools, and finished weapons and pieces of armor piled up in the corners. A lone matoran with dark skin, hair, and eyes was tinkering with a large and complicated-looking launcher weapon, and he looked up at the three newcomers.

“You know the drill. Leave your request in the slot outside, and we’ll get to it,” he said, hoisting up the launcher to peer through its aiming scope.

“This is an urgent matter,” Turaga Takanuva stated, “I have a Toa here in need of a weapon.”

The matoran put the launcher down on a table and looked up at Takanuva.

“He’s in need of a better color scheme too. But I digress, I’ve got just the thing for you.”

The matoran then went rummaging through all the piles in the workshop until he pulled out a long tri-bladed lance. He handed it to Takanuva.

“Try it out. Aim it at the wall but try to release as little energy as possible.”

Takanuva pointed the lance, conjured the most miniscule amount of light he could, and allowed it to release through the weapon. A large ball of light burst forth and blasted a hole the size of a kanoka disk in the wall. Takanuva looked down at the lance.

“Woah. But how?” he said. The matoran grinned.

“Most Toa tools just channel their power. This one amplifies it.”

“Wow, thanks,” Takanuva breathed, weighing the lance in both his hands.

“You know what, I like you, so it’s free of charge,” the matoran winked at him.

Turaga Takanuva turned to Toa Takanuva and Toa Tanma. “Now, I think you two have a job to do.” The two Toa nodded to the Turaga and took their leave.

They set out into the streets again, and Tanma began leading Takanuva towards a tunnel entrance. A thought struck Takanuva, and he lagged behind the other Toa of Light.

“Wait a second, before we fix the light barriers,” he said, and Tanma turned to look at him, looking slightly annoyed, “I want to see Matoro.”

Tanma scoffed, “What could you possibly want to see _him_ for?”

“I…I just want to see him. He’s…see, in my world—,”

“—This isn’t your world,” Tanma snapped, “Here, he’s a coward and I want nothing to do with him.”

“I just…I just want to see him once. Then we can fix the light barriers. I won’t take long, I promise,” Takanuva pleaded. Tanma huffed, folding his arms across his chest. He looked away for a moment, then looked back at Takanuva.

“Fine. Just be quick about it.”

“Where does he live? Is there a Ko-Koro type district or something?”

“I’ve never seen him around there.”

“So, he could be anywhere?” Takanuva thought for a moment.

“Well, you won’t find him in the city,” Tanma said, “No one would allow that.”

So, Takanuva searched the Kingdom’s outskirts, all while Tanma trailed behind him, sighing impatiently. Finally, in a desert region where Po-Wahi used to be, dotted with cloth tents and stone huts, Takanuva spotted a familiar face among the skakdi merchants. The Toa of Ice was clothed in tattered armor and wore a dirty grey cape for protection against the blowing sand. He handed a skakdi merchant a handful of widgets and the merchant gave him a sturdy walking stick. Matoro turned and walked towards a small tent, far apart from the rest of the skakdi dwellings. Takanuva jogged after him.

“Matoro!” he called, and the Toa of Ice reeled, nearly dropping his walking stick. As Takanuva approached he could see Matoro’s white hair was tangled and fell into his icy blue eyes. He was coated in dust, and there were dark circles under his eyes. When the Toa of Ice looked back at him, Takanuva could see there was no life in those eyes. His heart clenched.

“Uh, hey, there,” Takanuva said. Matoro frowned, and turned away from him, opening the flap of his tent.

“Go away,” Matoro grunted as the tent flap closed. Takanuva glanced backwards and could see Tanma keeping a significant distance from them.

“Matoro, please, I…”

“What do you want? And why can’t you leave me alone?” Matoro said from inside his tent.

“Because I need your help,” Takanuva said. A minute passed, where only the desert wind could be heard. “I want you to come with me!”

Matoro burst out of his tent, fury and incredulity flashing on his face for a moment before passing. Then the dull look in his eyes returned. “How could you need my help? The universe needed my help 10,000 years ago, and look what happened. Now please, don’t make me ask you again to leave.”

“I know about what happened,” Takanuva said, “But I think that maybe, in your heart, you’re a still hero. Where I’m from, Matoro is revered as the greatest hero to have lived.”

Matoro searched Takanuva’s face.

“You can’t be serious.”

“More than anything,” Takanuva said, “Where I’m from, there’s another version of you that fulfilled his destiny. He gave his own life to save Mata Nui’s. Because of him, we got another chance.”

“Well, that confirms it. That’s not me,” Matoro retreated into his tent again.

Takanuva felt an intense rush of emotion, and he could feel tears in his eyes. He hated seeing Matoro like this. He wanted him to get another chance, and something told him he was the only one in this universe that could give that to him. He took in a deep breath and let it out loudly.

“Matoro,” he said, “I know you. Another you, sure, but it’s still you. You don’t deserve this. If you had another chance to save the universe, you’d do it, wouldn’t you?”

Matoro was silent. The desert wind blew through his cloth tent.

“Would you rather be the Disgraced One for the rest of your life? Or do you want the Kingdom to know you as Toa Matoro again?”

Another long pause. Then Matoro slowly emerged from the tent flap. He sighed heavily, his eyes full of weariness.

“What do you need me to do?”

Takanuva rejoined Tanma, who was tapping his foot on the sandy ground. When Matoro approached, Tanma looked at him with pure disgust.

“Let’s get going,” Tanma said, and led the way back towards the city. Matoro pulled a hood over his head and kept his gaze down as the desert sand became paved streets once again. As they passed a plaza crowded with all manner of species, Takanuva could see a lot of eyes staring at Matoro and he overheard a lot of whispering.

“What’s he doing here?”

“Is that…really?”

“…coward…”

“The Disgraced One…”

Matoro didn’t look up, but Takanuva could see the despair in the Toa of Ice’s eyes, and he felt his heart break a little.

“The most likely place a Makuta would attempt to break through would be around here,” Tanma said, gesturing towards an open area ahead surrounded by mountains and tunnel entrances, where the buildings were much sparser. Takanuva followed Tanma’s lead, with Matoro behind him.

They entered a cold dark tunnel, only illuminated by a small light orb conjured by Tanma.

“We can’t go too far down,” Tanma said, his voice echoing down the tunnels, “There’s no heat and the air is foul. And most of the old universe is flooded with mutagenic waters. So, whatever managed to survive the cataclysm is probably now unrecognizable,” he shot a look of disgust in Matoro’s direction. Takanuva bristled at Tanma’s harsh words, and felt another pang for the Toa of Ice.

Soon the tunnel widened, and brightened, thanks to the barrier of light up ahead. Tanma looked it all over, and turned to Takanuva.

“So, the problem’s not here. Maybe further east, where Kini-Nui once stood…”

“What if… never mind,” Matoro said, keeping his head down.

“What he thinks doesn’t matter,” Tanma said to Takanuva, and pushed roughly past the Toa of Ice to return to the tunnel entrance.

“It matters to me,” Takanuva snapped, prompting the other Toa of Light to look at him with incredulity. Takanuva turned to Matoro. “Tell us what you think.”

Matoro cleared his throat. “Well, what if the barrier didn’t go down? What if they found a way to shield themselves from the light?”

“Then we have a problem,” Takanuva said, glancing sideways at a still rather incredulous Toa Tanma.

“I say we should explore other possibilities. You coming or not?” Tanma said. Takanuva nodded and checked to see if Matoro was still following him. But he wasn’t there.

“Matoro? Matoro!” Takanuva shouted down the deep dark tunnel.

“Typical coward. Let’s go,” Tanma said, but stopped short when the sounds of ice shattering caught both he and Takanuva’s attention. They sprinted deeper into the tunnels, and finally came upon a large chamber where Matoro was launching ice to fend off four damaged-looking rahkshi at the same time. The Toa of Ice cast his walking stick aside, and froze one of the creatures with both hands. Takanuva aimed his power lance at another rahkshi and blasted it with light, and it shattered instantly. Tanma took another rahkshi out with his own light powers. Finally, the four rahkshi swung its staff down at Tanma, but Matoro impaled it with a large ice spike.

Before any of them could savor victory, more rahkshi began emerging through the light barrier up ahead. The light burned off significant portions of the rahkshis’ armored hides, but they still made it through with their limbs and their weapons intact. As the creatures poured into the chamber, the two Toa of Light and the Toa of Ice bombarded them with elemental attacks.

Rahkshi fell one by one, but more kept coming in. Takanuva focused his power through his lance into a laser.

“Matoro, look out!”

The Toa of Ice ducked underneath the laser as it cut through a row of rahkshi. Tanma seemed to catch on and did the same with his light powers. With only a few rahkshi left, Matoro released a powerful blizzard that blew them back through the light barrier, which burned the rest of them away.

“Excellent work, Toa,” a cold deep voice permeated the chamber. Takanuva immediately knew who it was.

“Teridax,” Matoro said in a terrified whisper.

“Ah, Matoro,” the voice of Makuta Teridax said, “It’s been so long, old friend, yet it seems like only yesterday.”

“Why aren’t you dead?” Matoro said, his voice trembling, “So many have died, but why not you?”

“When light dies, darkness remains. And who thrives in darkness?”

“Makuta,” the word slipped from Takanuva’s mouth. His old enemy from his world. Why was he not surprised to see him here too?

“My brothers may have fallen, but I’ve absorbed their power. Now at last I have the strength to exact my revenge. Let’s start with you, Matoro. You failed to face your destiny. Mata Nui was supposed to cheat death, but you let him die. You ruined _everything!_ ”

A massive armored being crashed through the light barrier and grabbed Matoro by the throat. He threw Matoro against a wall, and turned to face Takanuva, who shuttered with disgust.

The Makuta Teridax he knew was a lot smaller than the behemoth that stood before him. And he had a lot less limbs and protruding spikes. The Makuta before him was a monstrous amalgamation of his own species, and his red eyes burned savagely. His teeth were long and sharp, and glistened in the light from the barrier.

“Matoro!” Takanuva cried, but thankfully he could see the Toa of Ice pushing himself back onto his feet. As Teridax stepped towards Matoro, the Toa of Ice bombarded him with ice spikes. Teridax lifted his staff into the air, but Takanuva blasted off the arm that held it with a bolt of light.

Teridax whirled and barreled towards him like an enraged animal, and Tanma fired several balls of light that whizzed through the air and pelted the Makuta back a few paces. Soon the tunnel was full of noise and flashes of light. Frost began coating every inch of the walls and began forming on the Makuta himself. Matoro fired more ice at Teridax until his feet were sufficiently frozen to the ground.

But shadow energy exploded out of Teridax and black tendrils grabbed Tanma before any of the Toa could react.

“Tanma!” Takanuva cried as he fired light spheres at the tendrils to dissipate them. But more tendrils replaced the ones that were destroyed, and soon the other Toa of Light was wrapped head to toe in shadow. The tendrils withdrew into the Makuta, and Tanma dropped to the floor, grey and dead.

“Now, Matoro,” Teridax took a heavy step in the Toa of Ice’s direction.

Takanuva fired bolt after bolt of light after the Makuta, who turned his attention to the Toa of Light, shadow energy filtering through his pointed teeth. With a roar he barreled towards Takanuva, who braced himself. Suddenly, Matoro leapt onto Teridax’s back, and wrapped his arms around the Makuta’s throat. Teridax then plucked Matoro off himself, held him by the neck, and absorbed him.

Takanuva fell backwards onto his behind and stared up in horror as half the Makuta’s hair turned white, and one of his eyes turned icy blue.

“Only one more left,” Teridax sneered, but suddenly a look of desperation crossed his face. “No, you’re not killing anyone else!” Takanuva gasped. That was Matoro’s voice!

Teridax roared, clutching the sides of his head.

“No, _no!_ Stop!”

The Makuta’s whole being shuttered, and he fell to one knee.

“Get out!” Makuta’s voice roared.

“I won’t let you kill anyone else! Your time in this universe is over!” Matoro’s voice said from the same mouth.

Makuta fell to the ground. More of his face began to resemble Matoro, though one eye still blazed with red fury. Shadow energy was leaking from his eyes, nose, and mouth like blood and spilled on the floor where it fizzled out of existence.

The monstrosity convulsed for a while, hemorrhaging his shadow essence until his grey skin paled and the fury in his eyes faded. He collapsed to the floor and lay unmoving next to the body of Toa Tanma. Takanuva began shaking and his breath shortened. On the cold hard floor, he fought for several minutes against a massive panic attack. He forced himself to take deeper breaths, each one becoming less shaky than the last.

Once his breathing was even again, he approached the large body. He could still see the shock of white hair on one side of its head. Matoro. He fought back tears, and made his way back out of the tunnel, carrying Tanma’s body over his shoulder.

He traversed the streets of the Kingdom, and he could hear people chattering amongst themselves, panic and grief in their voices.

“Is that Toa Tanma?”

“What happened…?”

“…who did this…”

“…he was with the coward…”

Takanuva crossed a courtyard and soon Turaga Takanuva arrived on the scene, and upon seeing the body of Tanma, called for a silence in the area. Toa Takanuva placed Tanma’s body gently down. His Turaga-self kneeled next to it, and gently closed its eyelids. A single tear ran down his face, but when the Turaga spoke, his voice was clear and strong.

“A hero has fallen today. But he died defending the Kingdom, and for that he will be revered for millennia to come.” A couple of Dark Hunters came and took the body away towards the Coliseum. Takanuva approached his Turaga-self.

“Matoro was there too.”

The Turaga looked intrigued. “Matoro? What was he doing with you?”

“I asked him to come. I wanted to give him another chance. And…he saved me. And the Kingdom. He faced Makuta Teridax head on and destroyed him from the inside. He’s dead.”

The Turaga examined his face. Axonn approached from behind him.

“He’s telling the truth,” the titan said grimly.

Turaga Takanuva closed his eyes for a moment and sighed. “Then it seems, we must mourn the loss of two heroes on this day. Perhaps not everyone would agree with me, but all the same, I’d like for Matoro to get a special mention on the Wall of History.”

The crowds in the courtyard began to disperse. Takanuva nodded gratefully to his Turaga-self and took his leave.

On the beach, alone, Takanuva took out Brutaka’s eyeballs from their pouch and watched as their blue irises whited out. He took one last look at the Kingdom of the Great Spirit and stepped through the portal.


	7. The Countdown Begins

The Toa Nuva barely had any time to celebrate their reunion, as the ensuing battle with the Makuta in the swamp necessitated them scattering in all directions. Tahu soared through the air, dodging shadow bolts from one of the blind Makuta, and narrowly avoided a pod that contained a few screeching shadow leeches. Pohatu was locked in hand to hand combat with Gorast on the ground. Lewa, Kopaka, and Onua were by a tree, surrounded by Makuta. Gali took flight, and came face to face with Krika.

The tall insectoid Makuta peered down at her, and Gali thought she could see a cold despair in his red eyes. She wondered momentarily how a Makuta could have such a look in their eyes, but cast the thought aside so she could send long tendrils of water after him. The Makuta made himself intangible, and drifted upwards as Gali’s water attacks passed straight through him. Krika made a grab for her, but Gali rolled to one side in the air then blasted away from the area. Just as she suspected, the Makuta was right on her tail. She flew lower into the foliage, looking for an opportunity to trip him up somehow.

Meanwhile, Tahu narrowly missed being hit by a shadow bolt, and nearly spun out of control. As he reoriented himself, he heard a _click_ and saw another one of the shadow leech pods falling towards him. He got his kanohi shield up just as soon as the leeches were released. Panic flashed through him when the leeches managed to latch their toothy mouths on the kanohi shield itself. Tahu dove towards the swamp. He deactivated his kanohi, and blasted upwards as the shadow leeches splashed into the mutagenic waters. He didn’t want to stick around to see what they’d turn into.

On the ground, not far from the Codrex itself, Pohatu (with Photok still clinging to his back armor) dodged, rolled, and punched, but none of his blows seemed to faze Gorast, who grinned down on him not unlike a Piraka. She threw a punch, and as Pohatu caught her fist in his hand, two more fists came at him, punching him a considerable distance backwards. His head throbbed, but he kept his footing. He activated his kanohi, and dashed towards the Makuta. He circled around her, delivering a rapid succession of blows in a matter of seconds. Gorast didn’t budge. Pohatu skidded to a stop several yards away from her and leaned over his knees for a moment to catch his breath.

“Just fall down, already,” he panted, glaring at Gorast.

“You Toa are going down, and all the matoran with you,” the Makuta sneered, her red eyes sparking like a flame, “The Plan can’t be stopped.”

“Tell me about this ‘plan,’” Pohatu grinned, “I’m curious.”

Gorast barreled towards Pohatu who leapt backwards, and Photok grunted in protest as his back hit a tree. Pohatu threw a punch, but Gorast blocked it, and jabbed a finger at his forehead.

“I have a better idea,” Gorast said, and Pohatu’s vision blurred. Dizziness washed over him, and suddenly all the energies of stone he possessed surged forth. Before his eyes, several colossal pillars of stone rose and instantly crumbled and toppled on top of himself and Photok. Pohatu was pinned and could sense that more and more rock was accumulating on top of him and his matoran companion, who was wriggling helplessly under his and the stone’s weight.

The stone beneath them was sinking downwards. Pohatu knew that he and Photok were trapped in a tomb of his own making. But his energy kept radiating out of him and he couldn’t stop it. His vision darkened more. He was seconds from passing out.

“Toa…Pohatu…” Photok squeaked. Pohatu could feel the matoran trapped on his back while the stone threatened to crush him. But he couldn’t move. There was no room to move. They were going to die here.

No. Not here.

Pohatu focused on his willpower, trying to cut off the flow of energy. A few seconds passed, and a tremor passed through the rocks above him. And more weight was added. It wasn’t working.

“P—Pohatu…” Photok said again with great strain in his voice.

There was a bright flash of yellow light, and Pohatu’s mind cleared a bit. He blinked a few times. Another flash of light, and Pohatu felt a jolt of energy travel through him. Pohatu felt himself regain control, and he blasted the stone rubble off himself and Photok and took flight.

“Was that you?” he asked the matoran.

“Yes,” Photok replied breathlessly.

“I owe you,” Pohatu said, and raised his arms, which sent an avalanche after Gorast, who used all her four fists to bat the boulders away.

Under a thick blanket of foliage, Kopaka, Onua, and Lewa were fending off shadow bolts and shadow leech pods alike, as the Makuta circled above them like predatory birds. Kopaka created a wall of ice spikes, and shot them in all directions, causing the Makuta to scatter for a few seconds before resuming their formations.

“They won’t let up,” Kopaka hissed in frustration.

“This actually reminds me of a story,” Lewa piped up.

“Is this really the time?” Kopaka said icily, swatting away a shadow bolt with his weapon.

“So, it goes like this—,” Lewa began, but Onua sent shockwaves through the ground, sending up earthen pillars after the flying Makuta and drowning out Lewa’s voice.

“Anyways, it goes like this—,”

“Lewa, there’s a battle going on!” Kopaka snapped, sending out more ice spikes.

“Once there was a group of matoran gathering berries deep-wood. They gathered a whole basketful, but on their way home—,”

A pillar of earth hit a Makuta, sending him plummeting to the ground. Onua called upon the earth to form around the Makuta, pinning him.

“—when a swarm of Nui-Rama came through the trees!”

“Yeah, then Toa Lewa saved the day, right?” Kopaka deflected a shadow bolt with an ice shield, then sent a blizzard in the direction of the Makuta.

“No, listen,” Lewa assisted Kopaka’s blizzard with some strong winds, “One matoran had an idea-plan. That they would just let the Nui-Rama have their berries. They left the basket out and waited. And the rahi began in-fighting over the berries. Soon there were no Nui-Rama left, and the matoran returned home with their bounty!”

“Okay, what’s your point?” Kopaka asked.

“I was just thinking…the key to defeating the Nui-Rama was to figure out what they wanted, right? So, what about the Makuta? What do they seek-want?”

“That’s hard to say,” Onua reasoned. He erected an earthen wall to protect them all from a barrage of shadow bolts.

“The keystones? So they can get into the Codrex,” Kopaka said.

“I don’t think so,” Onua said, “They were here days before us, and they knew about the keystones. They could have gotten in already. It’s something else.”

“How do you know?” Lewa asked.

“Because we’re not dead yet.”

Gali weaved through the trees and vines, her mind still trying to scramble together a plan to get rid of Krika. He was still in hot pursuit, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that he wanted something else from her, something other than her defeat in battle. What that could be, she couldn’t come close to guessing. She maneuvered around a mass of knotted roots, and quickly glanced behind her.

Krika wasn’t there. Confused, she turned back around, only to nearly jump out of her skin at the sight of the insectoid Makuta right in front of her. She blasted water in his direction as she swerved around and flew back the way she came. And there he appeared yet again. Gali hoisted up her blaster weapon, and aimed right between Krika’s eyes.

“Don’t think about moving,” she hissed. The Makuta stared hard at her, but there wasn’t a spark of savage pleasure in his eyes like the others of his kind. He almost looked…sad. Gali felt a chill sink down into her bones.

“Must we dance this dance, Toa?” he spoke in his raspy, whispery voice, which added to Gali’s discomfort. “Out of the two of us, I’m the one who knows how this will end.”

“Really. Enlighten me,” Gali took aim.

“Only fools fight in a burning forest. While you’re wasting time fighting us, your universe is burning down.”

Before Gali could react, she felt the Makuta’s insectoid legs snatch her out of the air and start carrying her away.

“You’re coming with me,” Krika rasped. Gali struggled against his grip, but she could feel some of her energy being drained away. Soon even the slightest movement was too much effort. Gali went limp as the Makuta flew further away from the battlefield where Gali’s friends were still fighting.

She wasn’t sure how long the flight lasted, but she was relieved when Krika finally dropped her rather unceremoniously onto a patch of hard ground in the middle of the swamp. She still felt weak, but at least she remained conscious. Gali pushed herself up onto her hands and knees. She looked up at Krika, who was perched on a rock above her, his gaze listless.

“We weren’t always like this, you know,” he hissed.

“I know,” Gali said, “the swamp water must have mutated—,”

“—I’m not talking about the way we look,” Krika interjected. He sighed, shaking his head sadly. “There was a time when the Brotherhood stood for something. Back when Makuta Miserix lead us. This was back when you and your Toa brothers were asleep.”

Gali stared at the strange mutated being, her mind desperately grasping for reasons a Makuta would have to tell her all this. But she sat and listened, even as she felt her strength beginning to return.

“Under Miserix we created the rahi beasts that matoran still use to this day. When civil war broke out in Metru Nui, Miserix suggested we venture outside our laboratories and start getting involved. That was the beginning of the end.”

Gali glanced about, surveying the area for escape routes. As soon as the Makuta was done talking, she’d make a break for it. Yet she also had to admit to herself she was highly interested in what he was saying.

“In the outside world we saw how the matoran revered and loved Mata Nui. That love and respect was what we desired most of all, and our jealousy poisoned us. Makuta Teridax rose up in rebellion against Mata Nui, and we all abandoned Miserix to follow him instead.”

“What happened to Miserix?” Gali asked.

“Teridax ordered Makuta Spiriah and I to eliminate him. When Spiriah couldn’t bring himself to kill, I told him that I’d take care of it. But I only brought Miserix to a southern volcanic island and imprisoned him there.”

“I didn’t think Makuta had the spines to disobey like that,” Gali commented.

“If the volcanoes happen to erupt, Miserix could die anyway. I only gave him a chance, that’s all.”

Gali’s mind flashed back to the task Tahu and Kopaka were given to stop the volcanic eruptions in the south. Did that have something to do with Miserix? Did the Order give them that task in order to protect him?

“I’m going to give you a chance as well,” Krika said, tossing something to Gali. She caught it in her hand. It was a fist-sized stone, marked with a jagged symbol carved into it.

“This will allow you to pass through the Brotherhood forces unharmed. Take it. You need to get as far away as possible. Just go and don’t look back.”

Gali studied his face, frowning. “If you wanted me gone, you could just kill me.”

“There’s a Makuta legend that says when you die everything you put out into the world comes back to you. I’ve put out a lot of pain and death in my life. Maybe I want to add just a small bit of mercy to the mix.” Krika grinned an unsettling lopsided grin.

“But why? Why do you want me gone? Is it so there’s one less Toa Nuva in Karda Nui?”

Krika gave a harsh, scratchy laugh. “You should have been a Makuta, Gali. You’re far too clever. If you and your Toa companions awaken Mata Nui, you’ll be setting in motion a future more horrible that you can imagine. If you leave now, that future can’t happen.”

Before Gali could protest, the mutated Makuta ghosted away, leaving no trace of his presence behind. Gali was alone in a quiet patch of swamp. She turned the Brotherhood of Makuta stone over in her hands. Frowning, she tucked it away in a pouch at her belt and set off to regroup with her Toa brothers.

Tahu had managed to beat back the blind Makuta with a fire blast that ignited a patch of dying plants and flew to meet up with the others. He managed to run into Pohatu, who was busy bombarding Gorast. She managed to slip away, and Pohatu grunted in disappointment as he released his control of the boulders, which crashed into a heap in the mud. He turned to smile at Tahu.

“Have you seen Gali around?” Tahu asked. Pohatu’s smile disappeared.

“No. I was distracted by the four-armed wonder.”

“I haven’t seen her in a while.” Tahu felt panic flutter in his chest, but he took a deep breath and let it out. “You’re the fastest. Go find her and bring her here. I’ll get the others.”

“Got it!” Pohatu turned to leave.

“Oh, and Pohatu…” Tahu started. He could feel the concern showing on his own face.

Pohatu’s genuine smile reassured him. “Don’t worry, she’s my friend too.” The Toa of Stone dashed away and was lost to the thick swamp foliage in an instant. Tahu jogged the other way, and took flight again, scanning the ground for his other Toa brothers.

* * *

Ignika hovered on his vehicle above Icarax’s massive form. Massive. Yet so weak. Where there was once swirling blackness, now resided the pulse of life. A Makuta with the pulse of life was weak.

Red eyes. Staring. Hatred. Ignika could feel the heat emanating from his opponent.

“So, what are you waiting for? Or does the Toa of Life not have the stomach to kill?”

Ignika blinked, confused. Icarax was no threat. He was weak. Why kill something that wasn’t a threat?

“Go on, do it!”

A challenge. But not worth it.

Icarax’s eyes burned him.

“Do you even know why you’re here?”

Ignika didn’t react, but his mind reeled. Why? Why am I here?

“You don’t know?” Icarax laughed. Rough. Unpleasant. “That’s amazing! The great Mask of Life doesn’t even know what it’s here for!”

More Makuta laughter. Ignika didn’t like it.

Icarax stood with great effort. Ignika braced for attack. But the Makuta only pointed.

“You probably didn’t even notice your armor change color, did you?”

Ignika looked down at himself. Color. Armor. What color was it before? Gold. But it was silver now. He looked up at the Makuta.

“You know what that means?”

Ignika stared into the Makuta’s burning eyes.

“Looks like the universe has gotten too off-balance,” the Makuta continued, “Soon your armor will fade to black, then _poof_ , everything ceases to exist.”

His words were strange. Ignika thought about them for a long time.

Off-balance. Color change. Gold to silver. Silver to black. Then, everything is gone. That wonderful glowing pulse that moved through everything will be gone.

Ignika placed a hand on his chest, over the symbol of the object he once was. He finally knew what it felt like to be alive. He had always felt it in everything around him, but now that he had it, he didn’t want it to go away.

Time. Time was his enemy. A greater enemy than Icarax.

Ignika willed his hoverboard to leave the Makuta behind, determined to find the other Toa. Time. They needed time. He hoped he could obtain it before his armor changed again.


	8. Dark Mirror

Hurtling through interdimensional space once again, Takanuva kept his grip on Brutaka’s eyes, hoping that this time they’ll send him to Karda Nui. After only a few minutes of drifting through the swirling colors and bright lights, a portal opened in front of him, and he fell through it, his face hitting solid ground a second later.

He groaned and lay on the ground for a minute while the vertigo passed. Takanuva sat up, rubbing his eyes and blinking to adjust to the silvery sunlight. As soon as his vision cleared, he could see that Brutaka’s eyes had not brought him to Karda Nui. He was standing in the Ga-Metru courtyard, right next to the great fountain. Upon further observation, Takanuva could see that things were a little off. Most notably, there were statues of the Toa everywhere, of Gali and Tahu and the others, in their original forms, not their Nuva forms. How long had he been gone? And what was with the new decorations?

He stared up at the gleaming buildings and listened. It was awfully quiet. Ga-matoran were dedicated to their studies, but normally there were always plenty of them mingling and hanging out near the canals. But there was nobody out in the streets, he could hear no chatter. Takanuva took a step backwards, and something small collided with his legs, nearly causing him to trip.

He turned and came face to face with Kapura, a Ta-matoran who was Jaller’s second in command on the Ta-Koro guard.

“Oh, Kapura! You scared me!” Takanuva gasped happily, but that happiness dissolved into confusion when Kapura’s eyes filled with fear at the sight of him.

“Oh, please, forgive me Toa! I—I’m so sorry, I didn’t look where I was going please don’t be angry with me—,” Kapura was speaking so fast all his words blended together. Takanuva was baffled.

“What…Kapura, it’s me! Don’t you recognize me?”

“I’m—I’m so s-sorry! Please, I won’t cause any more trouble!”

“Kapura, relax! What’s gotten into you?”

“Please, great and benevolent Toa, please forget this ever happened and let me go,” Kapura pleaded, his eyes shining with terror.

“Okay, where’s Turaga Vakama? Where are the Toa Inika?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Kapura said, backing away, “Please let me go.”

The temperature dropped, and suddenly Kapura was trapped in a cocoon of ice from the neck down. Kopaka strode towards them both, flakes of snow swirling about him. Stranger still, he was not in his Nuva form. His face was colder and harder than ever before, and his ice blue eye and his cybernetic eye stared daggers into Takanuva. Tahu appeared at his side, his arms crossed in front of his chest. He too was no longer a Nuva, and he had his old firesword strapped to his back.

“Tahu, Kopaka,” Takanuva said, “What going on? What happened to you two? And where did all those statues—,”

“—Shut it, and state your business,” Kopaka said, holding his old ice blade to Takanuva’s throat.

“What? Kopaka, it’s me!”

“We need to see your identification tablet,” Tahu ordered, stepping forward and holding out a hand.

“What are you talking about?” Takanuva cried frustratedly, “What’s an identification tablet?”

Tahu glanced at Kopaka, his face hard. “Book him.”

Kopaka crossed Takanuva’s wrists behind him and froze them together in a thick band of ice.

“Hey, what’re you doing?!” Takanuva tried wriggling out of his cuffs, but Tahu slammed him into a wall, pressing his face against it.

“You’re under arrest in the name of the Toa Empire,” the Toa of Fire said with thick disdain in his voice. It was when two Toa whom he had thought were his friends pushed him through the street in handcuffs that Takanuva realized that once again this was not his world.

Tahu and Kopaka led him towards the prison underneath the Coliseum. On the streets they passed a few matoran, who all walked quickly with their heads down. Vahki robots were stationed on nearly every corner. Before he knew it, the cuffs were melted off his wrists and Takanuva was shoved into a cold dark cell.

“Make yourself comfortable,” Tahu said, the hard edges in his voice cutting Takanuva to the core, “Someone will come get you in a week for questioning.”

Tahu and Kopaka left, and Takanuva tried to swallow the bitterness that rose in his throat. Sitting himself up, Takanuva summoned a small orb of light from his left hand. In its faint glow, he could see he was not alone in the cell. Chained to the wall was a battered, dirty matoran, head hanging limply to one side, his breath slow and ragged. Takanuva edged closer to him, and when he could see the matoran’s face clearly his heart skipped.

It was Takua.

Takanuva scrambled backwards, his back hitting the wall. The matoran stirred and let out a groan. Takanuva remained frozen on the spot. Even after meeting his own Turaga-self face to face, seeing another version of himself still boggled his mind.

“Hey, what’re you in for?” the matoran said, opening his bright blue eyes.

“Uh,” Takanuva said, “I really don’t know.”

“Figures,” Takua said, arching his back, making it crack, “The Toa Empire’ll find any excuse to throw people in here.”

“What is that? The Toa Empire?”

Takua looked at him like he’d grown another head.

“Are you serious? You really don’t know?”

“No,” Takanuva grunted, looking away from the matoran. He was angry and confused and he just wanted to leave.

“So, the story goes like this: Toa Tuyet found something called the Nui Stone, which magnified her Toa power tenfold. Then when Toa Lhikan tried to stop her, she and Toa Nidhiki teamed up and killed him. Then she set up this empire under the pretense that a Toa’s duty was to rule and conquer. Now anybody who stands against the Toa Empire winds up in here, and that includes everyone from Toa who are less than enthusiastic about conquest to matoran who don’t work quite fast enough.”

Takanuva met his other self’s gaze. He ran his fingers through his own hair, sighing heavily.

“So, why are you here?” he asked the matoran, who chuckled weakly.

“Couldn’t stop wandering off. When I failed the re-education program, they threw me in here. It’s been a couple months now, they probably forgot I was in here.”

“This is insanity,” Takanuva grumbled, reaching for the drawstring bag at his belt that contained Brutaka’s eyes. It wasn’t there. Takanuva searched all his pockets, got up and looked around the floor, in any spot he could have dropped it. Not only that, his power lance was no longer attached to his back armor.

“Looking for something?” Takua said, making Takanuva flinch, “they probably confiscated it. Forget about getting it back.”

“No. No, no, no, no.” Takanuva paced back and forth as panic mounted inside him. Then an idea struck his mind like lightning. He turned to Takua and grinned. “We’re getting out of here.”

The matoran opened his mouth but no words came out, his brow furrowed in confusion. Takanuva focused the power of light in his left hand and narrowed it into a thin laser, which he used to slice through the chains that held Takua to the wall. He sliced the cuffs off the matoran’s wrists, and they clattered to the floor. At the sound, two Vahki robots entered, their glowing red eyes peering through the bars of the cell. Takanuva wasted no time cutting through both them and the bars and pulled Takua through by the wrist.

“Woah, woah! Where’re we going?!” Takua cried as Takanuva led him through the winding tunnels of the prison.

“We’re going to the Archives.”

They crept through the city together. Takanuva used his powers to make light pass through them both, so they easily bypassed all the Vahki stationed in the streets of Metru Nui. As they rounded a corner and approached the Archives entrance, Takua nudged him.

“So, if you’re not from here, where are you from?”

“Shh!”

Takanuva crept closer to the Archives, watching a small patrol of Toa he didn’t recognize walk by.

“How did you get here?”

“Will you shut up?!” Takanuva hissed under his breath. He pushed open the door and entered the dank tunnels leading down into the Archives. They passed another set of Vahki guards, and Takanuva finally deactivated his powers, and both he and Takua became visible again. They found themselves in a large rectangular chamber which contained rows upon rows of stasis tubes. In Takanuva’s world, Onu-matoran stored rahi beasts in the tubes for study. But here, he could see the sleeping faces of matoran, and a few Toa, in suspended animation. The sight was sickening.

“I’m surprised they hadn’t put me in one of these yet,” Takua commented.

Takanuva wiped the dust away from one of the stasis tubes and jumped back in shock.

“Turaga Dume?” he said, staring at the familiar sleeping face.

“He talked too much,” Takua filled him in, “Preached that being a Toa meant upholding justice and mercy and protecting the weak. Toa Tuyet didn’t like that—wait, what’re you doing?! What if you trigger an alarm or something?!”

Takanuva created a laser to cut through the stasis tube. Liquid gushed out until finally the whole thing emptied and he caught Turaga Dume in his arms. He helped the elder to his feet. Dume blinked, and let out a wince of pain, rubbing his temples. He fixed his bleary yellow eyes on Takanuva.

“Who are you?”

“I’m…a friend,” Takanuva said, attempting to lead the elder away from the broken stasis tube. But Dume pushed his arm away.

“No Toa is my friend.”

“Look, there’s no time to argue. I need to find the shapeshifter rahi called the Krahka.”

“Wait, why? What do you need her for?” Takua asked.

“Setting this place right,” Takanuva said. Takua and Dume gave him two identical looks of skepticism. Then, the two backed away in fear, their eyes fixed on something behind Takanuva.

The Toa of Light turned and came face to face with a Toa of Water. She had long white hair that rippled down her shoulders in luxurious waves. Her eyes were icy blue. She was dressed in regal Toa armor that shone blue in the scarce light of the Archives. In one hand she held a fist-sized red gemstone.

With her other hand she withdrew a long, barbed sword. She gestured with it, in a manner that suggested they start walking. Takanuva felt a deep chill. Within those ice blue eyes he could see nothing. _This must be Toa Tuyet,_ Takanuva thought. He did as she wordlessly commanded, and Takua and Turaga Dume trailed behind him.

The three of them were marched deeper into the Archives by the Toa of Water, who didn’t speak a single word to them the whole time. Takanuva wondered why she wasn’t bringing them up to the surface, as they passed room after room full of equipment, dead rahi beasts, and eventually just piles of rubble and tiny rahi that skittered among the wreckage. After what felt like hours, they rounded a corner and came upon a small room lit by sparse lightstones. And two Makuta clothed in black sprang to their feet, charging shadow energy in their palms.

“Stand down, brothers.”

Takanuva whirled to see that the harsh, gravelly, cold voice had come from Toa Tuyet, who quickly morphed into Makuta Teridax. Takanuva stepped back and braced for a fight, though he was grateful that the Makuta wasn’t a mutated monstrosity this time.

“Normally I’d love nothing more than to crush a Toa, and avenge my fallen Makuta brothers,” the Makuta said, “But there’s something different about you. You’re not with the Toa Empire.”

Takanuva stared into the eyes of his enemy, though technically, he reasoned, this was not the same Teridax. He looked more or less the same but was only wearing tattered armor and didn’t seem as…gleefully evil.

“I’m not,” Takanuva answered, “I’m…Takanuva. Toa of Light.”

The three Makuta backed away at that last word.

“I’m not with Tuyet,” Takanuva continued, “I’m not even from this world,” he stole a glance at Takua, who was cowering in the corner next to Turaga Dume, “In my world, there’s no Tuyet or Toa Empire. And I really need to get back there.”

The three Makuta looked at each other and began to laugh, a rough and unpleasant sound.

“And how do you plan on doing that?” Teridax said.

“I need to find Brutaka.”

Teridax glanced over at his two brothers, and the taller one of the two spoke up.

“I’ve heard of Brutaka, some kind of legendary hero that guards a great treasure. But in a matoran legend any stone rat could be a great hero and a pile of rocks could be a great treasure.”

“True, Krika, true,” Teridax said, amused, “So, Toa, you’re either a liar, an idiot, or a madman. If you want our help, you’ll need to do something for us.”

“Okay, name it,” Takanuva said. He noticed that Takua was now behind him, peering around him at the three Makuta curiously.

“There’s a shipment coming in from the island of Artahka. Supposedly a matoran expedition found the Vahi, a powerful totem that can control time. Steal that for us, and then we’ll help get you out of the city.”

“Consider it done,” Takanuva turned to leave.

“The leader of the caravan is a fanatic,” said Teridax. Takanuva stopped in his tracks. “He’d rather die than surrender the Vahi. You may have to grant him his wish.”

“And who is he?” Takanuva asked.

“Some Ta-matoran,” one of the other Makuta said, “Jal-something?”

“Jaller,” the third one said. Takanuva’s breath faltered for a second.

“There’s something else you’ll need,” Teridax said. Takanuva turned to look at him, but when he did, the tall Makuta blew a fine black powder in his face. Takanuva coughed violently, stumbling backwards. He could feel the stuff enter his lungs, and after a few more coughs he suddenly felt much lighter.

Then his feet left the ground. He waved his arms about, trying to find balance in the air.

“What did you do?” he asked the Makuta.

“It’s only temporary, but it should help things go smoother,” Teridax said, “Now, go.”

Still hovering about a foot in the air, Takanuva glanced over at Takua and Dume, both of which still didn’t seem to know what to do with themselves in this situation.

“Will you keep an eye on them until I return?” Takanuva asked Teridax. The Makuta’s eyes switched between him, his brothers, and the matoran and turaga. After a few moments, he sighed a rough sigh.

“I suppose the price of the Vahi is high enough.”

Takanuva nodded to him, and flew out through all the winding tunnels back to open air. High above the city, Takanuva could see for miles, and thanks to his power he was invisible to the denizens of the hellish Metru Nui below. Far to the north, he could see a boat approaching shore, and he flew in that direction.

He watched the boat approach the docks from behind a pillar. He watched as the cargo was unloaded onto an Ussal-driven cart, and an all-too familiar Ta-matoran sat at the reins. This Jaller looked just like the one from his world, but his hair had been cut short close to his head. And that Ussal…that was Pewku. Takanuva felt an ache in his heart.

_That’s not my Pewku, and that’s not my Jaller_ , he reminded himself. Different world, different people.

Jaller cracked the reins and the Ussal cart trundled forward. Two Toa, one wearing black armor and the other wearing white armor, were riding Muaka cats and flanked the cart on either side. Takanuva remembered what Teridax had told him; that he’d have to kill them to get to the Vahi. But he came up with a different idea. He deactivated his cloaking power, becoming visible again. He strode up to the cart and held his hands up as he was met with spears at his throat from the two Muaka-mounted Toa.

“State your business, or face the consequences,” the Toa wearing black armor said.

“Who are you? We weren’t expecting visitors,” said the Toa wearing white.

“Lower your weapons. My name is Toa Takanuva, I’m here on Empire business,” Takanuva felt a cold sweat breaking out on the back of his neck. The two Toa lowered their spears, and directed their Muaka to close in around the Toa of Light.

“Toa Kualus,” the white Toa said, then pointed to the other, “He’s Toa Bomonga. State your business.”

“I don’t trust him,” Jaller said from the cart. Takanuva swallowed, and promptly shot a beam of light in his direction, knocking the reins out of his hands.

“S-silence, matoran,” he snapped, trying his best to make himself sound like a Toa of this universe, “If I want your opinion, I’ll ask for it.”

Toa Kualus and Bomonga raised their spears in unison for an attack, but Takanuva blinded them temporarily with a flash of white light from his left hand.

“Toa Tuyet has gotten word of a plan to steal the Vahi,” he said, “She sent me to aid you.”

“And why you, exactly?” Bomonga asked, blinking while his eyes adjusted.

“Yeah, I’ve never heard your name before. Are you even in the Toa registry?” Kualus added.

“I…,” Takanuva glanced over at Jaller, who glared at him with suspicion, “Ha—have you heard of the Takutanuva?”

The two Toa shook their heads.

“Or what about Graalok the mighty Ash bear?”

They shook their heads again.

“Or perhaps the beasts of Mount Ihu, or the flame serpents of the Tren Krom Break, or,” Takanuva paused for a moment and lowered his voice, “the Kohlii creature of Ga-Wahi?”

So many lies all at once. Jaller had always told him he was a terrible liar, but for a moment he believed that it was working this time.

“I haven’t heard of any of those things,” Kualus said.

“There’s a reason you haven’t heard of them,” Takanuva said, puffing out his chest slightly, “And I’m that reason. Who better to help protect the Vahi?”

Kualus and Bomonga exchanged a nod, and pulled at the reins on their Muakas.

“Very well, you may travel with us,” Kualus said, “You go in front.” He gestured with his spear, and Takanuva moved into formation in front of the Ussal cart. Jaller was still glaring down at him.

“By the way, Takanuva,” Kualus appeared at his side again, “Who exactly was planning to steal the Vahi?”

“A very powerful enemy,” Takanuva said, “Brutaka. Heard of him?”

Bomonga was suddenly by Kualus’s side, and the two exchanged a knowing smirk. Takanuva’s heart sank as he realized that he’d said the wrong thing.

“Yeah, we’ve heard of him. In fact,” Bomonga fixed his green eyes on Takanuva’s blue ones, “I’m the one who killed him.”

Takanuva tried to keep his head, and continued walking. “Oh, I see,” he muttered.

“Yeah, I drove my blade straight through him when his back was turned. Weird that now he’s now planning on stealing the Vahi.”

His mind reeling, Takanuva resolved to keep talking.

“So, you stabbed him in the back. That’s…cowardly.”

“Hey, when you see an opportunity, you take it. After all, he was an enemy of the Empire.”

“Have you got yourself a conscience, Takanuva?” Kualus said in a mocking tone, “That’s a dangerous burden to carry here.”

“So, what happened to Brutaka? Where’s his body?” Takanuva could feel Kualus and Bomonga’s eyes on his back.

“Anyone who works for Tuyet knows,” Bomonga laughed, “You _do_ work for Tuyet, don’t you?”

“All treasures and trophies go to the Coliseum,” Kualus said, “but I didn’t need to tell you that.”

Takanuva heard the charging of energy and spun to face Kualus. Before the Toa of Ice could strike, Takanuva fired a beam of light at the Toa’s spear, which heated up and clattered to the ground as Kualus cried out in pain. Bomonga moved in on Takanuva and struck the Toa of Light on the side of his head. Takanuva hit the ground hard, and his head throbbed as he pushed himself back onto his feet. Just as he was about to fire another beam of light, a massive wind ripped through the clearing, knocking Kualus and Bomonga off their muakas. Jaller dove for cover as Pewku squealed and jerked the cart to a stop. Another wind picked up and tossed Jaller and Pewku away. Takanuva only ran a few paces before being halted by another Toa.

He was clothed in green armor and carried a sword with a long, curved blade. He grasped Takanuva’s shoulder to prevent him from running.

“You’re not one of them, are you?” the newcomer asked. He had dark hair and dark green eyes, and more importantly he didn’t look hostile.

“No, I’m not,” Takanuva confirmed, his muscles relaxing.

“You’re bleeding,” the other Toa said. Takanuva lifted his hand, and felt the warm wet blood running from the gash where Bomonga had struck him. He focused his light power from his left hand, and closed up the wound. A faint smile of amusement came and went on the other Toa’s face, then he gestured for Takanuva to follow.

“Who are you?” Takanuva asked.

“Lesovikk,” the newcomer answered, scanning the area for Vahki enforcers, “I heard that you need to get to the Coliseum. I can take you there, but we’re going to do things my way.”

Takanuva nodded wordlessly and trailed behind the Toa of Air. The twin suns had dipped below the horizon, and under the cover of night the two picked their way through the streets. A half hour passed when out of nowhere Lesovikk grabbed Takanuva’s arm and pulled him in a sharp turn into a cave.

“Hey, wait!” Takanuva whispered, “The Coliseum’s the other way!”

“We’re going this way,” Lesovikk stated. Takanuva sighed inwardly and followed. They didn’t have to go far before reaching a chamber lined with rows of lightstones. On the back wall was a high throne made of jagged rock and what looked like the armored plating from a rahkshi. And upon that throne sat Toa Pohatu, seemingly in deep meditation.

Takanuva’s steps faltered. Lesovikk looked back at him questioningly.

“Are you sure about this? I mean, I met Tahu and Kopaka not too long ago…”

“Trust me,” Lesovikk smiled and led him up to the base of the throne. He scraped his boot against a rock three times, and Pohatu’s eyes flew open. He stood and descended the stone throne.

“I sure hope you haven’t lost your mind, Lesovikk,” the Toa of Stone said.

“This is Takanuva,” Lesovikk said, “He’s on our side. And he needs something of Brutaka’s.”

Pohatu seemed to consider the Toa of Air’s words, then his brown eyes peered into Takanuva’s.

“His eyes,” Takanuva blurted, “They have the power of interdimensional travel, and I need them to get back to my universe,” then a thought struck him, and he began asking questions, “Wait, why are you and Tahu and the others even here? If Metru Nui never fell and the Great Spirit never was put to sleep, doesn’t that mean you and the others weren’t needed? Because back in my wor—,”

“—He talks a lot,” Pohatu commented, and Lesovikk laughed in agreement. Takanuva snapped his mouth shut and watched as Pohatu circled him.

“You’re clearly not from around here, so I’ll give you the quick rundown. Tuyet discovered how to replicate the signal to summon our canisters. She signed us on to her team to hunt down Makuta and Dark Hunters to keep the universe safe. Of course, then I caught wind of all the matoran murders she committed, and the squad of Toa that massacred the Nynrah ghosts under her command. The thought of it still makes me sick. And when she announced the building of a great Toa Empire, that was it for me. I teamed up with Lesovikk and set up a resistance.”

Takanuva knew this was a different Pohatu, but he could see the noble spirit the one from his world possessed. He felt a bit of hope for the matoran of this Metru Nui.

“Lucky for you, we’re preparing for a raid right now,” Pohatu said, and turned to place his hand against the stone wall. Takanuva could feel the faint tremor travel up the wall and fade into the distance. “And signal’s sent.”

It wasn’t long before a small group assembled in the cavern. Three Dark Hunters, Guardian, Darkness, and Primal, all dressed in mis-matched armor, Toa Krakua, a Po-matoran named Ahkmou, and to Takanuva’s great surprise, Nuju, but as a Ko-matoran.

“So, what’s the plan?” Takanuva asked, “We break into the Coliseum, get Brutaka’s eyes, then get out?”

Pohatu chuckled, shooting Lesovikk a look. “He thinks small, too.” He glanced back at Takanuva. “This isn’t just about a pair of eyeballs, junior. Tuyet has had her way for far too long.” The Toa of Stone grabbed a protosteel battleaxe off a hook on the wall. “It’s time to take her down.”

* * *

Takanuva snuck towards the Coliseum alongside Pohatu and his squad. Pohatu had told Takanuva that on the other side of the great building another squad, led by Makuta Teridax. The first step was to get rid of the Toa guarding the entrance.

Takanuva stepped forward, feeling a new cold energy stirring inside him. Instead of activating his light, he raised his right hand and activated something else. A swirling mass of shadows burst from his hand and swept up the guards, blinding them. He didn’t get a chance to marvel at or worry about this new ability of his, because Pohatu then summoned a fist of stone to break open the gates, and the squad rushed forwards.

As they ran into the arena, greeted by a line of matoran and Toa guards, Takanuva caught a glimpse of Makuta Teridax, Makuta Krika, the third Makuta he didn’t know the name of, Turaga Dume, and Takua. The turaga and matoran both wielded makeshift weapons.

They moved further towards the Coliseum, more Toa came after them. One with the power over iron seized the third Makuta in Teridax’s squad by his armor, and crushed it and the makuta’s body underneath. The makuta’s shadowy essence began leaking from him, but a nearby Toa of Plasma incinerated the rest.

Takanuva dove to avoid another Toa’s sword. He blinded him with another burst of shadow energy. Nearby Lesovikk and Pohatu were busy facing up three Toa of Fire at the same time, combining their elements to form a vortex of wind and stone. Takanuva threw another Toa against a wall with a hand made of shadow. He looked up and saw Takua get knocked down onto his face by a Toa of Iron. Takua threw his hands up in self-defense, and was promptly speared all the way through by a row of iron spikes summoned by the Toa.

Takanuva’s breath caught in his throat, and shock seized his muscles at the sight of his own matoran-self impaled and bleeding, his blue eyes glazed over. And the chaos in the arena only increased with every passing moment.

One of the Dark Hunters in Lesovikk’s squad confronted Tahu, and after the exchange of a few blows, the Dark Hunter seized Tahu by the head and snapped his neck. Then Gali appeared on the scene, forcing a sphere of water around the Dark Hunter’s head, who choked and thrashed helplessly until he ultimately drowned. Toa Krakua released a powerful blast of sound that struck Gali head-on. She collided with the wall, denting it, then slumped to the floor, leaving behind a bright red smear of blood. Ahkmou ran past Takanuva and Pohatu, who cried out for the matoran to stop, only for Ahkmou to be frozen solid by Kopaka in an instant and shattered to pieces in the next by Onua.

Takanuva felt the room begin to spin. Everything was wrong. These Toa were wrong. All this death was wrong. He felt Lesovikk nudge him forward.

“Follow Darkness,” he whispered hurriedly in Takanuva’s ear, “He’ll show you to the treasure room. Go, now!”

“What about you?”

“Don’t worry, find what you need and get out of here, back to your own universe!” Lesovikk turned away from him, and after taking an ice spike to the shoulder, sent a torrent of wind towards Kopaka, knocking him off a balcony above them, and sending him plummeting to the floor where he lay unmoving. Takanuva swallowed hard and ran after the Dark Hunter named Darkness.

Darkness’s body liquified and easily slipped through the cracks in the wall of the Coliseums’ main spire. Takanuva focused his shadow energy to widen some of the cracks so he could squeeze through as well. Inside the spire was quiet; it would have been impossible to tell there was a battle raging right outside in the arena. Takanuva tailed Darkness, rushing through corridor after corridor, up through spiral walkways and some stairs until they came upon a room with a large stone door on the far wall. A squad of Toa were waiting for them, and as they moved to attack, Makuta Teridax broke through the wall with his squad, pinning them down. Takanuva and Darkness moved towards the door, but just before they could reach the handle, a tsunami blasted the door off its hinges and crashed into Darkness, who flew across the room and was crushed against the wall under the door’s weight. Takanuva had managed to cling onto the doorframe, holding his breath against the powerful deluge that washed over him. Once the water died down, Takanuva rushed into the room, where he came face to face with the real Toa Tuyet, who held the Nui Stone in one hand, and Brutaka’s eyeballs in the other.

“You don’t belong here,” she said, her voice soft yet dangerous.

“Neither do you,” Takanuva stood tall, meeting her cold blue gaze, “In my world, true Toa stopped you before you went too far.”

Tuyet tossed a lock of wavy white hair over her shoulder and rolled Brutaka’s eyes around between her fingers.

“This isn’t your world,” she hissed, “It’s mine.”

Takanuva saw his power lance hanging on the wall nearby, and couldn’t believe his luck. He grabbed it. Takanuva swung his power lance over his head and moved in to strike her, but in the blink of an eye he was blasted backwards by another torrent that knocked the weapon out of his hands and pinned him to the wall. Water rushed down his throat and into his lungs, and his body gasped and choked. The edges of his vision grew dark, and just before he blacked out the deluge ended and he fell onto his hands and knees, vomiting up water.

“Are all Toa from your world as weak as you?” Tuyet levitated the Nui Stone inches from her palm, turning it over and over again. “It doesn’t matter. You and your band of brothers back there failed. I’m not going to let anyone get in the way of the peace I created.” She attached the Nui Stone to her belt while fiddling with Brutaka’s eyeballs with her other hand.

“Peace?” Takanuva spat, his lungs finally rid of water, “Enslavement is not the same as peace.”

“I made the world right. Who are you to judge, you’re just an alien from another dimension,” Tuyet tossed Brutaka’s eyes lazily in the air, and Takanuva sprang forward to catch them. But Tuyet caught his arm, spun him around and pinned him to the floor with his arm bent awkwardly behind him. Takanuva released a cloud of cold shadow energy from his body, temporarily blinding Tuyet and releasing her grip. Takanuva spun away from her, and dove for his power lance. Just as he was on his feet again, he was swept off the ground by a massive geyser. Takanuva hit the ceiling and crashed to the floor. Tuyet pressed one of her boots into his back, crushing his ribs and squeezing the air out of his lungs.

“Your little rebellion is over,” she hissed into his ear. Takanuva gathered up all his energies, dark and light, and released a burst of combined energy, knocking her backwards across the room. Takanuva then alternated hands, firing bolts of shadow and light at the Toa of Water. She blocked each one with her barbed sword, which left a stream of water in its wake. Takanuva ceased his barrage and leapt backwards, gripping his lance hard. The two locked eyes, neither one making another move.

Then a tremor shook the Coliseum, and one of the walls of the room collapsed, revealing the outside world. They were about a mile up, and Takanuva could see the arena down below, and the front entrance. The battle from before had died down, with countless Toa bodies littering the arena floor. But that wasn’t all; beyond the gates, Takanuva could see rows upon rows of thousands of matoran, all wielding stone and metal weapons, advancing on the Coliseum in unison.

“Still think the rebellion is over?” He sneered at the Toa of Water, whose air of confidence remained steadfast. She smiled amusedly.

“I could sweep them all away with a tsunami without even trying,” she said, “This doesn’t worry me in the slightest.”

“If you kill them all, then who’d be left to control?” Takanuva said, locking his eyes onto her.

“True, there’s no reward in ruling an empire of corpses,” she reasoned, “But still, they must be taught respect.”

“Why bother with them? You could go anywhere, to any universe, where you’d be welcomed with open arms. You could start over, build an even bigger empire!” Takanuva saw the spark in her eyes. Tuyet looked down at the pair of eyeballs in her hand.

The blue irises faded to white, and an interdimensional portal opened behind her. She gave one last cold smile to Takanuva before turning to enter it. Then Takanuva struck. He used his light power to blast himself forwards, knocking the eyes from her hand, catching them in his own, and diving straight into interdimensional space.

He spun weightlessly about, shoving Brutaka’s eyes into a pouch on his belt. Looking behind him, he saw the portal still open, with Tuyet halfway through, arms outstretched to grab him. Then the portal slammed shut, severing the lower half of Tuyet’s body. Her cold blue eyes were now frozen open, her mouth agape. Crimson droplets of blood floated away from the stump of her upper body.

Takanuva felt dizzy again and fought down a sob. This whole experience was too much in so many ways. His breathing was short; he couldn’t get enough air. So many horrible things he didn’t want to remember. As he fought to fill his lungs with air, Takanuva flashed through images of Takua dead on an iron spike, Tahu and Kopaka and Gali all killed in battle, serving a mad Toa that sought to rule and conquer. He tore his eyes away from the dead Toa Empress, inhaling and exhaling slowly to calm himself. Eventually his breath evened out, and he curled into a ball, and waited for the portal to Karda Nui to open.


	9. The Codrex

Takanuva hit the ground, splashing into a mud puddle. All the trauma from his dimensional jumping experience left his mind in an instant as the tainted Toa of Light rose to his feet and attempted to wipe the mud from his face and armor. He observed his surroundings. He was in a swamp with thick twisted foliage. The air was heavy with fog and it stunk. Takanuva was unsure if Brutaka’s eyes had finally brought him to Karda Nui, so he began walking.

He kept to the land, because the swamp water bubbled and churned, and he occasionally saw spiked fins and tentacles rise out of it before disappearing, leaving behind only ripples. He sloshed through another mud pit, and waved away a small swarm of flies from his face. Suddenly he saw a flash of blue and something crashed into him, knocking him backwards into the mud again.

“Mata Nui! Is that you, Takanuva?”

Takanuva blinked and wiped the mud from his eyes, and above him stood Gali, wearing new aerodynamic armor with artificial wings. He felt the smile spread across his face.

“Hey,” he chuckled, “So, is this Karda Nui?”

“Yes but, how did you get here? Are you okay?” Gali hoisted Takanuva to his feet with her hand. Her blue eyes searched him up and down, and her expression grew confused. “What happened to you? And did you get…taller?”

Takanuva blinked at her and looked down at himself. He knew of his dark grey skin and grey armor, but he hadn’t noticed himself grow taller. He glanced back at Gali, realizing that, indeed, she did look a tad bit shorter to him now. A worrying thought crossed his mind: was he going to keep growing? What other things did the shadow leech attack do to him?

“Uh, anyway, I came here from Metru Nui,” Takanuva began, “The Order of Mata Nui, heard of them? They told me to come find you, so they gave me Brutaka’s eyeballs to transport me across dimensions—,”

“—Gali, hey! I’ve been looking for you!” Pohatu’s voice startled them both. The Toa of Stone jogged up to the two of them, but his steps faltered when his brown eyes fell upon Takanuva.

“I gotta say,” Pohatu said, scratching his chin, “I’m not a fan of the color change.”

Takanuva shrugged.

“Uh, anyway,” Pohatu turned to Gali, “We need to meet up with the others.”

“Yeah, I got held up by…something…I’ll tell you later,” Gali said. Takanuva wondered what she meant by that. He followed the two Toa Nuva through the thick undergrowth.

“So, why do you look like that? And how did you get here, anyway?” Pohatu asked.

“It’s a really long story,” Takanuva said, his heart suddenly growing heavy under the weight of all he’d experienced lately.

Gali called a halt with a swift hand motion. Up ahead were the sounds of scratching and skittering and the snapping of twigs. With an obnoxious buzzing sound, something large flew over their heads from behind, and soon the three Toa were surrounded by a swarm of enormous insectoids with long sinewy wings.

“We don’t have time for this crap,” Pohatu growled, raising his hands to call upon his power over stone.

But Takanuva felt a surge of energy within him, and he stepped forward and raised his right hand. A multi-branched shadow bolt exploded from it, impaling a good number of the insectoids, and scaring the rest away. In the next instant, Pohatu and Gali stepped away from him, their eyes wide with mistrust.

Pohatu raised a launcher weapon up, pointing it directly at Takanuva’s face.

“Okay, I’ll admit you had us going for a bit there,” the Toa of Stone said with a hard edge in his voice.

“Hold on, Pohatu. It’s me, I promise,” Takanuva said, but Pohatu stepped forward and pressed the barrel of the launcher weapon to Takanuva’s forehead.

“How can you be Takanuva when you’re clearly not a Toa of Light?”

Takanuva raised his hands up in surrender, but Pohatu refused to back down. Gali stayed a few paces behind the Toa of Stone, her blue eyes piercing through Takanuva. He racked his brains for something he could say that only Takanuva would know.

“What’s a Toa?” he blurted. Pohatu lowered his weapon slightly, his eyes full of incredulity.

“Excuse me?” he said, bewildered.

“That was the question you asked when you first awakened. Right after your creation. You were told that you were a Toa, and you said, ‘What’s a Toa?’ I saw it. No Makuta were there, so how could I be a Makuta?”

“What’re you talking about?” Pohatu asked.

“The Order of Mata Nui showed me how you and the other Toa were created, and your training on Daxia, and fighting the avohka on Karda Nui before you went to sleep.”

“And how does that prove you’re who you say you are?” Pohatu kept the launcher raised, unmoved.

“Um…” Takanuva glanced back at Gali, who hadn’t moved a muscle in a solid minute. “Toa Gali formed a psychic bond with Takua the Chronicler on the island of Mata Nui. I’m sure the connection can still be made with Takanuva.”

Gali stepped forward as Pohatu stepped back, lowering his weapon. She carefully took Takanuva’s hands, and she closed her eyes. Takanuva did as well, and suddenly he felt a rush of emotions not his own, of confusion, desperation, anger, and determination. He saw the battles with the Makuta on Karda Nui, he saw the transformation of Matoran of Light into Matoran of Shadow, and Matoran of Light turning into borok. He saw a great silver dome, and a mutated Makuta with red eyes full of regret. His eyes flew open, as did Gali’s.

“It’s him. It’s Takanuva,” Gali confirmed, and Pohatu sighed with relief and attached his weapon to his back armor. “He was attacked by a shadow leech.” She looked into Takanuva’s eyes, her face full of sympathy, “You saw a lot. A world where Mata Nui died…one where Toa ruled as dictators…All that just to get to us.” Takanuva’s gaze dropped, fighting down the swirl of emotions that came up with those memories.

“Okay,” Pohatu said. He patted Takanuva on the shoulder and gave him a friendly smile, “Just make sure not to surprise the others with that shadow trick.”

“I won’t,” Takanuva smiled back.

“Let’s get going. We’ve got Makuta to fight and a Codrex to get into,” Pohatu began jogging away, and Takanuva and Gali followed close behind. As they ran, Takanuva thought about the Av-matoran, and was reminded that they were his people once. He had seen them drained of their light and twisted into monsters by the Makuta in Gali’s memories, and it made pure black hatred well up inside him like a pool of tar. He swore to himself that the Makuta will pay for what they did to his people, and that he’d find a way to restore the Av-matoran’s light.

Before he knew it Takanuva was in the throes of battle alongside his Toa Nuva brothers and sister. The Makuta on shadowy wings above them sent a vortex of shadow in their direction, but Takanuva sprang forward and with his right hand he unraveled the vortex and absorbed it into himself. With his left hand, he withdrew his power lance and fired an enormous ball of light that cut straight through the Makuta’s ranks. A few of them, which appeared to be blind, were caught in the blast and were severely burned, some of them lost limbs. As they retreated, a few Makuta on the ground came to fight, but the Toa all fired their elements in unison, effectively blowing their opponents back. The Makuta tried pushing back against the assault, but with a powerful burst of light that blinded all in the immediate area, Takanuva finally sent their shadowy opponents into a hasty retreat.

“They’re heading towards the Codrex,” Tahu stated, holding out the newly assembled keystone in his hand, which was covered in tiny carvings that instructed how to activate the Codrex, “And there’s a long process to waking up Mata Nui. So, let’s go.”

“Wait,” an unfamiliar voice rasped. Takanuva turned to see a tall slim Toa wearing shiny silver armor. His eyes were wide and round, his hair long and silver.

“Ignika?” Onua said, making Takanuva’s mind spiral with questions. He looked back at the strange Toa, and noticed that his armor depicted the same patterns he’d seen in carvings of the Mask of Life. So, this Toa was the Mask of Life?

“There…is…problem,” Ignika said, his speech was stilted, and his voice sounded like he’d never used it before, “My armor…changed. Gold to silver…”

“It was gold before? Wait, yeah, it was! Remember?” Pohatu nudged Kopaka, who looked deep in thought.

“Yeah, you’re right. So, what does it mean?” the Toa of Ice asked. Ignika surveyed the Toa with his round silver eyes.

“It turns black…then it is over.”

“Over? You mean…” Pohatu didn’t need to finish the sentence.

“Time,” Ignika said, shaking his head, “Time is…not much…”

Gali looked down at the keystone in Tahu’s hand. “Then we might not be able to complete the awakening process. There’s a lot of steps.”

“That’s not the only problem,” Takanuva spoke up, and all attention fell on him, “If Mata Nui is awakened, an energy storm will rip through Karda Nui and destroy everyone and everything here.”

“All the more reason to get moving,” Tahu said. He led the seven other Toa towards the Codrex, which was guarded by all their Makuta opponents. The ones that had lost limbs from Takanuva’s assault had grown new ones. All the shadowed beings stood awaiting the Toa attack they knew was coming. The Toa stayed hidden behind the foliage as Tahu addressed them all.

“Hit them hard and hope that some of us make it inside. Don’t get caught up in individual fights. Even if one of our own falls, keep moving. This is our one and only shot.” All the other Toa nodded, except Kopaka, who placed a hand on Tahu’s shoulder.

“They know we’re coming for them, but they don’t know when. We’ll use that to our advantage. Here’s the plan…” The Toa of Ice explained it to them all, and after a unanimous agreement, the eight Toa companions moved into positions all around the Codrex. Gali guided Ignika to his spot and reminded him twice what to do and when, since battle strategy clearly wasn’t his strong suit.

The assault began with Lewa and Gali raising up a storm together with howling winds and pelting rain. Takanuva added to it with bright flashes of light, which quickly disoriented the Makuta, who struggled to maintain their positions. Tahu heated up a nearby fallen stalactite until it glowed red hot, and Pohatu crumbled it to pieces with his power, sending the rubble crashing down onto the Makuta. The ones that attempted to take flight were pulled down by large earthen hands summoned by Onua, and they were pinned to the ground. Kopaka then combined his power with Ignika’s, slowing the Makutas’ life processes while coating them in frost.

“ _Go!_ ” The Toa of Ice commanded, and all eight Toa shot forward while Tahu summoned his kanohi shield to surround them all. Each Toa fired their elemental energies at the Makuta in short violent bursts. The air was exploding with sound and light. Makuta Gorast appeared in front of Tahu, and with one blow from one of her fists his kanohi shield shattered like glass.

“ _Separate!_ ” Tahu shouted to his companions, and they all took off flying in different directions. They all circled back around towards the Codrex, deflecting all the shadow bolts and vortexes and shockwaves the Makuta fired at them.

Makuta Bitil let out a powerful piercing scream, sending waves of sound after Onua, who was hit hard and began falling towards the swamp. Gali saw this and dove, catching the Toa of Earth in her arms. She fought to gain altitude, all while swerving to avoid more shadow bolts.

“Save yourself!” Onua protested, “Remember Tahu’s orders?”

“Sorry, brother, can’t hear you!” Gali said, flashing him a grin.

Off to one side, Gorast came face to face with Ignika, who froze in his tracks, his wide eyes observing her like she was a strange new rahi beast he had just discovered. She hoisted a long stinger-like weapon in one hand, and stabbed him in his chest. Ignika felt the blade pierce through his organic tissue and realized that she had missed his heart by mere inches. He looked up at the pile of rubble caused by Tahu and Pohatu and waved at it with one hand. The rock sprang to life and morphed into a vague Toa-like shape. It barreled towards Gorast, whose attention was immediately turned to fighting it off. Ignika looked down at the weapon still stuck in his chest. He pulled it out, wincing at the pain. But he focused his power, and the damaged tissue and muscle healed, and the pain dissipated as his armor repaired itself.

He looked back up at Gorast. Makuta. Hatred. He hated her. She tried to kill him. Ignika took a step towards the Makuta with the intent to punish her, but Lewa quickly grabbed his arm.

“No, this way, Toa-brother!” Lewa cried, pulling him along. Ignika liked him. He was green, like plantlife. But why was he being so forceful?

“What?” he asked, his own voice still felt strange vibrating in his own throat.

“They’re scattered! We need to get past them while there’s still a chance!”

So, Ignika followed the green Toa.

Tahu had made it to the entrance of the Codrex, right on the border of its forcefield. There was a thin pedestal to one side of the door, and he knew immediately to place the keystone onto it. Once in place, the keystone floated an inch above the pedestal, and the forcefield shut down.

“Everybody in! Hurry!” He shouted above the cacophony of the battle. All his Toa companions rocketed towards the Codrex. Tahu waited until they were all in, then grabbed the keystone and ran inside himself. The forcefield flew up again, and the front door slammed shut behind him. Everyone panted tiredly for a few minutes before getting their bearings. A window opened on one wall, and they could see the frantic Makuta still outside, circling around the forcefield.

“Now what?” Takanuva broke the silence.

“First things first,” Pohatu said, then stopped when he looked Takanuva up and down, “Wait, did you get taller?”

“Fascinating,” Kopaka said, eyeing the tainted Toa of Light.

Onua strayed away from the others, observing every inch of the inside of the Codrex. It was smooth and shiny, with parts of the wall occupied with complicated mechanisms that clicked and whirred. There were all kinds of small symbols carved into the walls which he couldn’t read. His eyes fell upon the back wall, and something in his mind threw off sparks of familiarity.

“Were we here before?” he asked aloud, and all other conversation ceased.

“I think we were…yeah,” Lewa appeared next to the Toa of Earth, looking puzzled and uneasy. “I think-remember we were talking about…something. The rest is blank.”

“Look at that,” Kopaka pointed up at the wall, at the six identical alcoves carved into it, “Those are just the right size for our Toa canisters.”

“Then that means…” Pohatu paused, leaning on Kopaka’s shoulder, “This is where we came from!”

“We came here from Karda Nui and got into our canisters to wait for when we were needed,” Kopaka said. He and his Toa Nuva teammates all stared awestruck at the wall. The memories had emerged, still blurry and fragmented, but it was enough to remind them.

“We can process this further after we’ve done our job here,” Tahu reminded them all, and all were broken from their brief trance.

As per the instructions on the keystone, Onua activated a panel and touched on a sequence of symbols. The wall that once held their canisters opened inward and revealed a circular platform with a circle of six lightstones hovering in the center. All eight Toa stepped onto it, and the platform sunk down into a deep dark cavern. A glowing circle lit up on the floor under the circle of lightstones, and a line of light traveled from it, branching off into three.

Pohatu followed the center line and felt one tile under his foot sink about an inch into the floor. A section of the floor opened, and from it rose a large metal cocoon, which then opened to reveal a large crimson vehicle, sleek and aerodynamic.

“Woah,” he said, and upon hearing two more clicks, he glanced around and saw that both Kopaka and Lewa had made similar discoveries, one green and one blue. Now three aerial vehicles stood before them, gleaming as if they had just been polished.

“I’m ever-sure we haven’t seen these before,” Lewa said with awe in his voice as he stroked one of the vehicle’s metal plating with his hand, “I would have definitely remembered.”

“What do we use them for?” Onua asked.

“I think there’s the answer,” Lewa chuckled, pointing at the blasters mounted to the fronts of the vehicles.

A jolt of energy shook the chamber, and each Toa struggled to stay on their feet.

“The forcefield,” Onua said, “The Makuta are breaking it down.”

“Not if we can help it,” Kopaka nodded towards the vehicles.

Lewa grinned from ear to ear, “I like what you’re saying, ice-brother.”

Some stone crumbled off the ceiling and walls, and the metal shell of the Codrex began to dent inward. Acting instantly, Onua, Pohatu, and Kopaka created pillars of earth, stone, and ice to keep the ceiling from caving in. Lewa added his power to the mix by increasing the air pressure around the ceiling and walls to force it back into place. But the harder they pushed, the Codrex pushed back twofold.

“We’re taking these out there. Maybe we can slow them down,” Kopaka started towards the three new aerial vehicles. Tahu caught his shoulder.

“I’ll come too,” the Toa of Fire said.

“No,” Kopaka said, meeting his gaze, “You need to stay here in case this doesn’t work.”

“I’m going!” Lewa leapt to Kopaka’s side, “If I don’t take the opportunity to drive one of these beauties, Turaga Matau will never forgive me.”

“Me too!” Pohatu said. Lewa had already leapt onto the large red vehicle, eagerly gripping the handles.

Just as Kopaka moved towards the blue one, one of the blind Makuta landed square into the cockpit, and the vehicle roared to life.

“How’d he get in here?!” Pohatu yelled. But the vehicle had lit from the floor and zoomed up towards the ceiling, where it became intangible and disappeared. Pohatu jumped onto the green vehicle, and he and Lewa blasted after the Makuta. Kopaka began sprinting back towards the entrance of the Codrex.

“I’m going after them!” he shouted behind him so the other Toa could hear.

Takanuva watched the Toa of Ice go and felt a powerful surge of shadow energy inside him.

“I’m going out there too,” he said, and as soon as he stepped forward Gali caught his shoulder.

“Wait, Takanuva. We need you here. What if the Makuta break in?” the Toa of Water said.

“The Makuta will pay for all the things they’ve done!” Takanuva snapped at her. The dark energy surged again like a wave in a stormy sea. “They destroyed Ta-Koro, killed Lhikan, killed countless others, in fact! They corrupted innocent matoran! I’m going to destroy them all!”

Tahu grabbed his shoulders and turned Takanuva towards him. “Hey! Listen to yourself! You sound like a Makuta!”

Takanuva felt his face soften for a moment and felt a shiver in his chest. His gaze dropped from Tahu, who released his grip from his shoulders.

“It’s just…” he could feel the energy surging again, “My people are out there. The Av-matoran.”

“I understand,” Tahu said gently. Takanuva looked back at the Toa of Fire, his resolve steeling.

“I’m going out there. I need to get them away from Karda Nui before the energy storm hits.”

“You’ll never make it,” Gali said with great concern, “The Makuta will tear you apart as soon as you set foot outside.”

Takanuva raised both his hands and could feel the warmth of his light in the left and the cold of his darkness in the right. The two energies began intermingling, forming a slew of power pooling inside him. His left hand glowed with golden light, and his right crackled with darkness. He rose his head and smiled at Gali and Tahu.

“No, they won’t. I’ll make sure of that.”

Meanwhile, Kopaka had exited the Codrex, surveying the area. Above him he spotted the blind Makuta on the blue vehicle, scuffling with a shadow matoran that clung to the side of the vehicle’s armored plating.

“Please, great Makuta!” the shadow matoran cried over the roar of the engine, “Let me fly into battle with you!”

“You’re no longer of use to me!’ the Makuta shouted back, tossing the shadow matoran away. Kopaka wasted no time creating an ice slide to slow the matoran’s fall and ensure he wouldn’t land in the mutagenic swamp waters. The shadow matoran tumbled onto the solid ground, groaning, and pushing himself to his feet.

Takanuva emerged from the Codrex, stopping right in front of the shadow matoran.

“Leave the matoran to me,” Takanuva said, “Go, catch up with Pohatu and Lewa!”

Kopaka nodded to him and flew away.

* * *

Inside the Codrex, Gali, Tahu, and Onua worked through the instructions on the keystone while Ignika watched with great curiosity. They’d throw switches and touch symbols on the walls and on holographic panels, and small pulses of energy would travel through the thin tubes that ran up and down the walls of the interior. The process was arduous, and the three of them felt increasing stress with every minute that went by. Each energy pulse was meant to contribute to jolting the Great Spirit awake, but even as they increased in intensity, the whole process felt far too slow. When Gali glanced at Ignika, she could have sworn the silver of his armor had dimmed slightly. They were running out of time.

“There’s gotta be a way to make this go faster,” Tahu said, as if he knew what she was thinking. Then Gali saw a glint in his eye. She sighed.

“Something stupid and reckless, maybe?” she said, an exasperated tease.

“We need to do it all at once. One powerful jolt,” he said with a slight smile.

“That’ll either wake him, or kill him,” Onua said.

“Or it’ll blow up the Codrex and us with it,” Gali added.

“Maybe if we had something else to feed all the energy through it, without it building up too much,” Tahu suggested.

“Sure, that could work,” Onua said, “But where would we find something…like…that…” his voice trailed off as he looked behind him at Ignika, who was still staring at them like he didn’t understand. As all three Toa turned to look at him, realization seemed to light up in his eyes, which widened significantly. Tahu gestured to him.

“Come, brother, let’s talk.”

Ignika stepped slowly forward, his silver eyes locked on Tahu like a wary rahi.

“You might have the capacity to channel the energy we need to awaken Mata Nui,” Tahu carefully explained. Ignika blinked at him. “You see down there?” Tahu pointed down into the chamber where they had discovered the aerial vehicles, where stood the circle of six lightstones. The small pulses of energy traveled through the pipes and down to those stones, which sent the energy up into the ceiling.

Tahu approached Ignika carefully. “If you stand down there, you can send all the energy up there at once,” he pointed to the ceiling, “And then Mata Nui will wake up. Do you understand?”

Ignika stared for a moment, then opened his mouth, “What…about…me?”

“What about you?” Tahu said, confused.

“What…happen…to me?” Ignika said.

Tahu exchanged a look with Gali and Onua. “We don’t know.”

“Channeling the energy might put a strain on your physical form,” Onua said. Ignika glanced at him, then back at Tahu, an expression of fear appearing on his face.

“You may have to go back to being a mask,” Tahu clarified. Ignika’s eyes flashed with rage and he sprang forward, holding Tahu by his throat and lifting him into the air. Under the Toa of Life’s grip, Tahu felt a powerful force surge through him. His heart began to beat faster and faster, and his breath gasped out in shorter bursts as his windpipe was crushed in Ignika’s fingers.

Gali and Onua rushed in to help, but with a wave of Ignika’s other hand, the two were swept away and tumbled head over heels before crashing into the walls. Tahu tried kicking and clawing, but he could feel his body grow weaker by the second.

“Stop it! You’re killing him!” Gali cried in a strained voice.

In desperation, Tahu heated his body and armor up to hundreds of degrees in an instant, and Ignika cried out in pain. He dropped Tahu, who began to feel his vitals return to normal.

“That’s the thing about being alive, you feel pain,” Tahu gasped, rising to his feet, “And you can die. Just like everyone here will die if we don’t awaken the Great Spirit. We need you to help us do that!”

“No!” Ignika cried, and lunged towards Tahu again. Just as the Toa of Fire gathered flames in his hands in preparation for the fight, Gali jumped between Ignika and him.

“Ignika,” she said, “Stop and think for a second! Why did you become a Toa in the first place?”

All rage was erased from Ignika’s face. His silver eyes seemed to search some far-off horizon that only he could see, then a look of fondness softened his features.

“Matoro,” he said in his strange raspy voice.

Gali, Onua, and Tahu, all looked at each other. The atmosphere in the Codrex grew heavy for a moment. It made sense. Ignika was there when Matoro died. Even Ignika, the naïve former object of great power, knew the significance of Matoro’s sacrifice.

“That’s right,” Gali said to him, “Matoro gave his life for everyone in the universe. If he were here right now, presented with the same task that we’re proposing to you, what would his answer be?”

Ignika seemed to reflect on Gali’s words as he raised a hand to his chest, touching the symbol of the Mask of Life etched into his dark grey armor.

“He would say…he would say yes,” Ignika said, “I will do it. I will be…hero. Like Matoro.”

* * *

Lewa whooped excitedly as his vehicle knifed through the air, hot on the Makuta’s trail. He found a red switch on the dashboard that made the blasters hum to life, and he began firing at the Makuta. The Makuta was ready for it, and pulled the blue vehicle into a corkscrew, bringing him out of Lewa’s line of sight. Lewa hit another button, and a holographic interface appeared right in front of his eyes, making him jerk back slightly in surprise. But he quickly adjusted and pieced together the function of it.

There was a dark spot on his radar, straight ahead of his vehicle. Must be a Makuta, he reasoned, and began firing the blasters. They met a target. Lewa heard a shout, then suddenly, several dozen dark spots appeared. With his natural eyes Lewa could see several dozen of the same Makuta surrounding him on shadowy wings.

“Hey, I’ve heard of you and your tricks!” he shouted down to Bitil and his doubles, who were all charging up shadow energy. Lewa threw the switch again, and squeezed the triggers on the handlebars, bombarding the Makuta doubles with explosive charges. Shadow bolts whistled past his head. He jerked the vehicle to one side to avoid them, only to nearly crash into several more advancing Bitil doubles. He tossed out a few blades of air, which managed to cut a few down. but more kept coming, and Lewa was forced to pull up on the handlebars to ascend over the crowd.

Pohatu appeared on the scene, aboard the green vehicle, pulling into a drift and ramming into a good number of Bitil’s doubles.

“Thanks, stone-brother!” Lewa called out over the engines.

The two spun about, knocking away more Makuta. Pohatu steered sharply into another Bitil, which turned out to be the original one, because crashing into him caused all the other doubles to disappear. Once that was taken care of, the two spotted the blind Makuta sailing above them in the blue vehicle. They continued the pursuit, the wind screaming past their faces, the world becoming a blur.

Pohatu called up pillars of stone far ahead the blind Makuta, forcing him to swerve. Lewa fired more charges from the blasters on the red vehicle. A few made their mark, denting the armor plating slightly. But the Makuta pressed on, and the Toa did the same.

It wasn’t long before Kopaka arrived on the scene, flying with his aerial armor as fast as he could. He sent a large hailstorm after the blind Makuta, who didn’t seem phased by the bombardment. Kopaka flew over his two Toa brothers, firing ice spikes at the Makuta. Lewa fired more rapidly from his vehicle’s blasters.

The blind Makuta looped around, now heading straight for his Toa pursuers. He fired his own blasters, forcing Lewa and Pohatu to swerve. Pohatu nearly collided with one of his own stone pillars and shattered it with his power before he could crash into it. Lewa pulled his vehicle into a loop to get back on the blind Makuta’s tail. He jammed on the gas as hard as he could, surging forward and steadily creeping up on the Makuta’s flank.

Kopaka kept sending up ice walls in front of the blind Makuta, but each time they were shattered by the vehicle’s blasters. Pohatu appeared behind and above the Makuta and called up a stone hand to stop his opponent’s advance. The Makuta’s vehicle was caught on the stone for a moment, and Pohatu pushed his vehicle into a dive, firing explosive charges. The Makuta was hit once, but he managed to wrench the vehicle free from the stone and he sped away, crashing through another ice wall.

The Makuta’s cloudy eyes flashed bright red, and Pohatu’s vehicle plunged towards the ground far below. Lewa saw this, and dove towards the Makuta, bombarding him with blaster fire. The Makuta’s concentration broken, Pohatu’s fall ceased, and he angled upwards, speeding towards his opponent.

Kopaka then raised his hands in the Makuta’s direction and lowered the temperature around him drastically. The Makuta’s vehicle slowed and puttered to a stop, its engine frozen solid. Just as Lewa and Pohatu were upon him, the blind Makuta dissipated into a cloud of shadow essence. Kopaka zoomed through the air and landed in the cockpit of the blue vehicle. He nodded to his two Toa brothers.

“Let’s make this a battle to remember,” he said.

* * *

Takanuva walked with Photok, Solek, and Tanma, all while carrying a shadow matoran under his arm. The shadow matoran struggled in his grip, to no avail.

“Let me go!” The shadow matoran said, “And what are you supposed to be anyway, a Toa of Twilight?”

“Shut up, Radiak,” Tanma snapped, “We’re trying to help you.”

“Like I’d trust you lot, especially this Toa,” Radiak said.

“Guys, is that Vican?” Photok called out, pointing ahead towards the ruined stalactite village. Takanuva squinted, and saw the dark shape flitting about on shadowy wings. It seemed to spot him and his companions, and it dove swiftly towards them. The new shadow matoran landed in front of them. His bloodshot eyes widened at the sight of Takanuva.

“Are you a Toa?” he asked.

Takanuva hesitated. He’d never get used to the spindly insectoid appearance of a shadow matoran, and he certainly felt suspicious at the desperation in his voice.

“You have to be,” Vican said, stepping forward, “You have to help me!”

“Who are you?” Takanuva asked. His matoran companions stationed themselves behind him.

“I’m Vican…you guys remember me, right?” the shadow matoran pleaded with the Matoran of Light. When they didn’t respond, he continued, “I…I worked for Makuta Mutran and I had to help with his experiments…he was making a rahi recently, it got loose, and it attacked me. I don’t know how, but I feel more like myself…please, you have to—,”

“Slow down,” Takanuva said, “You’re not making sense.”

“It doesn’t matter, he’s one of them. We can’t trust him,” Solek growled.

“No! Mutran used a shadow leech on me, that’s what made me this way! I had to do horrible things…his experiments…Oh, Mata Nui forgive me…” Vican’s eyes swam with tears. “Please, the rahi, it helped me see what I’ve become. I’m not that anymore, you have to believe me!”

“Nice trick,” Radiak said from under Takanuva’s arm, “I’ll remember that for when I get away from Twilight here.”

“It’s not a trick!” Vican shouted.

“It’s not like we haven’t seen this before,” Tanma said, “Shadow matoran claiming to be reformed, playing on our emotions only to trap us in the end. Let me—,”

Takanuva gestured sharply with his hand, cutting him off.

“Where’s this rahi?” the tainted Toa of Light asked. He felt a flicker of hope that if Vican was telling the truth, there was a cure for his shadowy affliction.

“Don’t tell me you’re buying his story,” Photok said through his teeth.

“Answer me,” Takanuva urged Vican.

“It flew east,” Vican said, pointing, “We can still catch it!”

“We’re going,” Takanuva said to the others.

The five of them began the climb up to a tight cluster of stalactite villages. Most of them were in ruins from the countless Makuta attacks they’ve endured for the last few months. Once they made it to the top, Vican stopped them all, gesturing towards one of the partially smashed huts. Hanging upside down from the wooden frame of the hut was a large rahi bat. Radiak fired a small shadow bolt at it, making the rahi unfurl its spiked wings and let out a screech.

Radiak fell back, pressing his hands to his ears. But after a moment, the rahi flew off to perch on another building nearby. And Radiak stood slowly, and turned to look at Photok, Solek, and Tanma. He blinked, and his eyes faded from red to bright blue, and his grey skin got its tan color back. His claws disappeared and his limbs shrunk down to their proper size.

“Is…everyone alright?” he asked, his voice much less harsh than before, “I didn’t…I didn’t hurt anyone, did I?”

Solek stepped forward first. “Radiak, is that really you this time? What can you remember?”

“I…I tried to kill you,” Radiak looked heartbroken, “I’m…so sorry…”

“If you’re really on our side again,” Photok said, “Then tell us what the Makuta were planning.”

“I remember they said they wanted the Toa to awaken Mata Nui, but they didn’t say why. But once he’s awake, they’ll kill the Toa and corrupt any Matoran of Light that are left.”

Takanuva pondered Radiak’s words. A flood of questions came to him. Why did the Makuta want Mata Nui to awaken? Why put him to sleep only to let him wake up again? And did this mean the Toa fulfilling their destiny was all part of their plan? How could that be?

“Tanma,” Takanuva said, “You four go find the rest of the shadow matoran and bring them here. Keep provoking the rahi so it can cure them. Then all of you need to get out of Karda Nui.”

“After all that, we’re just handing over our homeland to the Makuta? No way!” Tanma said. But Takanuva gripped his shoulders hard, anger surging up inside him.

“Listen to me,” he hissed, “When Mata Nui wakes up, there will be no more Karda Nui. An energy storm is going to destroy everything inside this cavern. You and the others are getting out of here, even if I have to drag you!”

Tanma looked stunned by his harshness but Takanuva didn’t care. Their time was running out.

“Go!” he shouted, making all the matoran jump. They scurried off to find their brothers and sisters. Solek stayed behind for a second.

“You know, you’re a lot different from the Takua I used to know,” he commented with a slight smile. Takanuva’s curiosity spiked. He still had no memories of his life as an Av-matoran.

“I was bitten by a shadow leech,” he shrugged, “So, there’s that.”

“Even so,” Solek said, “It’s good to see you again.”

“Were we…friends?” Takanuva asked. Solek only smiled and nodded and sprinted away to join his Av-matoran companions.

Takanuva didn’t have long to think about his missing memories before he felt a jolt of shadow energy shoot through him.

Glancing about, he could see several Makuta that had all fired shadow bolts at him at once. If he were his original self, it would have killed him. But now, shadows crackled in his right hand, and light glowed in his left.

As he saw each and every one of their pale grey faces, their sadistic red eyes, that thick, black hatred rose up in his throat, coating his insides and threatening to burst out of him. Before he’d been fighting to keep the darkness down, but finally it overpowered his very sense of self, and Takanuva exploded with shadow and light, firing in all directions.

Makuta Bitil’s doubles encircled him, and with a swing of his power lance, Takanuva sliced through the lot of them, dissipating their essences in an instant. He spun and fired a light sphere at an advancing blind Makuta with a shadow matoran rider. The shadow matoran was knocked off the Makuta’s back, and the Makuta reeled at the loss of its eyes.

“Come on! Come on!” he screamed, “Any Makuta that gets near me dies!”

The blind Makuta chuckled heartily, “And what about your code, Toa? You’re not supposed to kill!”

Takanuva responded by blasting a hole through his chest. The Makuta’s essence leaked out of the wound as the body went limp and dropped to the ground.

“This is what you wanted, isn’t it?” Takanuva raged, his whole body on fire, “A Toa without a code? Well, now you can _choke on it!_ ”

He cut down some more Bitil doubles, and soon he was lost in the primal instincts the shadows brought with them. He hurled his energies outwards, slashing and tearing his way through the Makuta’s ranks. The Makuta scattered as he charged at them full speed. He lashed out with his power lance, firing blast after blast at the shadowy beings, singeing off limbs and expelling shadow essence from their shells.

More Bitil doubles appeared before him, staffs raised to stab him through. But a barrage of blaster fire rained down on them, forcing them back. Kopaka arrived, aboard his shiny blue vehicle.

“Need help, brother?” the Toa of Ice called out to him. But Takanuva didn’t hear him. He was charging through the Makuta, in the throes of a brutal thirst for violence and death. His vision was tinged red as he cut down Makuta after Makuta, his heart screaming for their blood. After all they had done, they deserved no mercy.

Kopaka blasted through the ranks of the Bitil doubles, hitting the one which caused all the others to disappear. Even with all the Bitil doubles gone, Takanuva’s head snapped this way and that, searching for more Makuta to strike. Another blind Makuta with a shadow matoran rider, who Kopaka recognized as Kirop, swooped down towards Takanuva, who wrenched the matoran off his back, and hurled him towards the swamp. Kopaka angled his vehicle downwards and caught Kirop by the collar before he hit the water.

The Toa of Ice pulled the vehicle to a stop, watching Takanuva snarl and throw enormous amounts of energy at the blind Makuta like a rahi beast. He sighed, and after securing Kirop to the vehicle with bands of ice, Kopaka leapt off the vehicle and created an ice slide for himself to descend right onto Takanuva.

He landed on the uncontrollable Toa of Light and Shadow’s back, wrapping his arms around his throat. Takanuva began to choke and thrash about to throw Kopaka off. But the Toa of Ice kept his grip.

“Takanuva, you can stop now!” Kopaka shouted. Takanuva continued to thrash. Kopaka lowered the temperature around them, and his Toa brother began to slow. “Remember who you are!”

“I am what they _made_ me!” Takanuva raged in spite of the cold.

“Then you’re letting them win,” Kopaka said calmly, “You’re admitting that you’re no better than them.”

He could feel Takanuva’s muscles begin to relax, and Kopaka released his grip and allowed the temperature to warm up once again. Kopaka dropped to the ground on his feet, and watched as Takanuva’s enraged expression faded, and the familiar light of his blue eyes returned.

“There,” Kopaka said, “That’s better.”

Takanuva looked apologetic for a moment, but his eyes widened, and he quickly intercepted a shadow bolt from a passing Makuta. A cluster of spiky dark shapes faded into the distance within seconds. All the shadowy beings had left the scene. Kopaka stared after them.

“Why do they run? They could have finished us off.”

“They can’t kill you yet,” Takanuva said grimly, “They need you to awaken the Great Spirit.”

“They _need_ us to awaken him?” Kopaka said, totally confused.

“I’ll tell you about it on the way,” Takanuva said, and the two set off to regroup with their fellow Toa.

* * *

Onua had left the Codrex to help the other Toa fight. That left Tahu and Gali alone in the Codrex with Ignika. In a few minutes, they planned on sending Ignika down to the lightstone circle to send enough energy to jolt Mata Nui awake. For a moment, Tahu was overwhelmed. He sighed.

“This is it,” he said, “Every battle we fought…all led up to this.”

“It’s funny,” Gali said, “There were times that I hated you. I thought you were always being stubborn for stubbornness’s sake. But now I see you were doing your best to lead us. It must’ve been hard.”

Tahu felt a rush of emotion, and he suddenly found it hard to look at her. But he knew he had to say it.

“Gali,” he said. He paused for a moment while she waited patiently. “I remember now. When we were in here before, I led you here. And I knew that we may never leave.”

Gali didn’t say anything. Tahu couldn’t tell if she was angry with him or not.

“What I mean is, we were the failsafe for if anything happened to Mata Nui. We were put to sleep for our own protection. But if we weren’t needed, we would have stayed asleep in those canisters forever. I knew, and I didn’t tell any of you until we were trapped in the Codrex, and there were only two choices: get in the canisters or die in the energy storm.”

Gali still didn’t say anything. Tahu felt hot shame in his chest. He felt like out of all his fellow Toa, she was his closest friend. And he wouldn’t be able to blame her if she hated him after this. But she surprised him by pulling him into a tight hug. He wrapped his arms around her, and they stayed like that for a long moment. When they separated, Gali smiled warmly at him.

“I understand why you did it. You made a hard decision. If you didn’t, we wouldn’t be here right now.”

“Thank you,” Tahu smiled back, “I knew that out of everyone, you’d understand,” he paused for a moment, “I need to be out there, fighting. I can’t stay here.”

“I know nothing in the universe could keep you from a fight,” Gali chuckled, “But listen,” she laid a hand on his arm, “We’re going to get through this. We’re going to make it out of here, and we’re going to win the day. Then someday we’ll look back on it and wonder how we survived. After all, with Lewa as a fighter pilot, how can we lose?”

Tahu laughed in agreement. Then a thought struck him. “That’s it!” he said as Gali gave him a puzzled look, “The vehicles will get us out in time!”

He jogged out of the room, heading for the entrance to the Codrex. “Give me three minutes, then start the awakening!” he called over his shoulder, “We are all going to get home, I promise!”

Gali watched him go, then began her mental countdown. She turned to Ignika, who was waiting silently.

“Are you ready?” she asked him.

Ignika looked hesitant at first but placed a hand on his chest. “Yes. Ready,” he said.

* * *

Takanuva split from Kopaka to check on the progress of the Av-matoran in curing their shadow matoran brethren. Tanma reported that there was only one left that they couldn’t find.

“Her name’s Gavla,” the matoran said, “She may have gone into the swamp, I think.”

“Okay, I’ll go find her. You need to get everyone out of here and head towards Metru Nui,” Takanuva said, “There are Toa there, so it should be secure.” He quickly gave Tanma directions, said his goodbye, and headed back towards the swamp. He didn’t have to go far before a lone female shadow matoran came into view, wandering the muddy shores of the swamp. There were a couple of blind Makuta nearby, so Takanuva snatched her up, covering her mouth, and speeding them both away.

The matoran bit his hand, and he yelped.

“Put me down! Bring me back to the Makuta!” she screamed, kicking and struggling in his grip.

“Sorry,” Takanuva said, “We’ve got a date with a rahi bat.”

The creature was perched in a tree on the outskirts of the swamp. Its grey eyes peered at the tainted Toa of Light and his screaming companion. It didn’t make a move until Takanuva shot a shadow bolt towards it. The rahi bat ruffled its wings. Takanuva shot at it again, and the creature screeched long and loud, flapping towards him. It flew over his head, and flew screeching into the distance.

All at once, Takanuva felt the full force of the warmth of his light return to him. That dark pool of energy within him was gone, replaced by peace and rationality. A smile spread across his face as he looked down at himself; his skin was turning from grey back to the familiar tan, and his armor was slowly fading back to its proper golden color.

He looked back at the matoran Gavla, who had also returned to normal, but to his surprise she was scowling.

“Why’d you do that to me?” she demanded, “I found a place among the Makuta, and you ruined it for me!”

“But why would you want to be with them?” Takanuva asked.

“Maybe I liked it! The power, the freedom…now I’m…ugh!” she shouted, pulling at her hair.

“But you were hurting your friends…”

“Friends? As if!”

Takanuva was at a loss for words for a moment. He couldn’t understand her point of view in the slightest. But, he decided, she still deserved as much a chance as the other Av-matoran.

“Well, uh, Tanma is gathering all the Av-Matoran in the west. All of you need to leave Karda Nui while there’s time. Otherwise this whole place is going to be destroyed.”

Gavla kicked at the dirt, huffing in frustration. “I guess you gave me no choice,” she spat bitterly.

* * *

The Makuta were still determined to fight, forcing the Toa back towards the Codrex. While his brothers fought the other Makuta, Tahu was locked in combat with Gorast.

“The final moments approach!” the four-armed Makuta hissed with glee, “The Plan is going to succeed!”

Tahu dodged two of her fists and blocked the other two with his kanohi shield. “That reminds me, where’s the leader of your Brotherhood? Is he too much of a coward to face us?” he taunted. Gorast managed a punch to his midsection, but Tahu got up again and thrust tongues of flame in her direction.

“Oh, you’ll hear from him soon enough, Toa,” Gorast said through her sharp-toothed grin, “In words like thunder!”

“None of us will hear much of anything if we don’t leave! When Mata Nui awakens, there’ll be an energy storm that’ll kill everything in here!”

“Toa lies,” Gorast spat as some of Tahu’s flames singed her chest armor. She alternated punches with her arms, trying to batter him down, but he managed to parry each blow.

“He’s telling the truth!” a raspy voice cut through the battle. Tahu looked up to see the long-legged Makuta Krika. “Gorast, don’t you see? Teridax sent us here to die!”

“You’re full of shit, Krika,” Gorast said, punching Tahu in the face and knocking him backwards into a tree. She advanced on her fellow Makuta.

“Stop, wait! Gorast! You’re not listening! _You’re going to die here!_ ” Kirka shrieked. Gorast only summoned her shadow wings to carry herself up to him. She grabbed at one of his skinny insectoid legs, and Krika began fading away into his ghostly form.

“Gorast, you fool! You’re only dooming yourself…!” Krika said as his voice faded into a mere echo, and his form dissolved like smoke. Tahu then heated up the air around her to hundreds of degrees. Her metal armor began to soften.

“He was trying to save you, and that’s how you repay him?” Tahu said, clenching his teeth.

“Tahu!” Kopaka called out to him, “We need be ready to get out of here!”

Gorast began laughing, even as her armor turned to slag. Tahu glanced over at her and ceased his attack. Gorast’s laughter became louder and more manic with each passing second.

“Can you feel it?” She cried triumphantly, “The Great Spirit is awakening!”

* * *

Ignika descended into the deep chamber of the Codrex. He stood in the middle of the glowing rocks, just as the blue Toa said. He could feel the hum of life around him; it was faint, but it was still life. For a moment, he felt the life inside himself. Every muscle and tissue. Every breath of air. Every heartbeat. He didn’t want it to go away.

But he had to give it up. Matoro would do the same. He let a momentary sadness wash over him, and a single tear ran down his face. Never had he felt more alive.

He reminded himself that this world was much bigger than him. If he didn’t give it life, then all the other beautiful life here, all those vibrant plants and small matoran and noble Toa would become cold and dead forever. He raised his hands above his head, and he gathered all his energies. Then finally, he let it surge forth, sending it up to the ceiling of the great silver dome. The air began to vibrate. Like all the living things. Vibration.

It was working.

With one last beat of his heart, Ignika released all his power, his body fading into wisps of light.

He was a mask again.

Life pulsed around him.

Everything was bright.

Right when Ignika ceased to be, Gali felt a jolt through her chest. It didn’t hurt, instead it carried a stream of emotions that were not her own. It was curiosity, wonder, and enthrallment at all the wonderful things Ignika saw in his living body. She could feel his joy, his rage at his enemies, and the fear that came with having to give up his life. But then there was triumph. And it faded away like smoke in the breeze.

Gali came back to herself, and the realization struck her. The mask. She ran to grab it, but as soon as she touched it, a force blew her back into the wall. She groaned, her head throbbing as she pushed herself to her feet. Onua suddenly rushed in and grabbed her arm.

“But the mask…!” she protested.

“No time! We need to get out now!” Onua said, pulling her along.

The storm had begun. First, it was a faint glow in the swamps. Then it brightened exponentially, and spiraling columns of energy sprung from the waters, shooting lightning bolts in all directions. As Gali ran with Onua, she could see the Makuta looking on in awe. Mutran flew up to a storm cloud, reaching out to it curiously, only to be struck by a lightning bolt and disintegrated in an instant. The other Makuta began to scramble as the situation became clear. Gorast stared up at the rising chaos, her eyes clouded with disbelief, betrayal, and anger.

“No, this isn’t possible,” she said, “This isn’t possible! Krika was right!”

“You mean…?” one of the blind Makuta said, fear in his cloudy eyes, “Teridax really did…send us here to die?” And with that, the energy storm blocked them from view.

Gali and Onua caught up with their Toa brothers, and they all mounted the three aerial vehicles. As Karda Nui burned and dissolved and was torn to shreds around them, the seven Toa rocketed towards the west. They all clung on as tight as they could, the wind screaming and howling around them. White bolts of lightning crackled around them, striking far too close for comfort.

Pohatu caught a glimpse of the Mask of Life whizzing by, but lost sight of it just as quickly. He also saw the Makuta fleeing in the distance, their images warped in the distance by the torrents of energy that ripped through the place.

“Tahu!” he cried, “The Makuta won’t make it! Should we…?”

Tahu considered what his Toa brother was saying. It was true that the Toa code stood against the act of killing or letting beings die a preventable death. But these were Makuta. And Tahu knew in his heart that attempting to save them would most likely mean the death of some of his teammates. They weren’t worth it.

“They started this inferno,” he said to Pohatu, “Let them burn in it.”

The three vehicles were heading straight for the wall of the great cavern of Karda Nui. All seven Toa braced for an impact.

“Everybody hang on!” Lewa shouted over the roaring cacophony of the engines and the intensifying storm. The vehicles turned themselves and those that rode them intangible, and they all passed through the wall unharmed. The storm was only a muffled hum now, and all the Toa whooped and cheered as the blazing light of the twin suns greeted them with their golden warmth.

The Great Spirit had finally awakened.


	10. Destined Downfall

The Toa gathered in the Metru Nui Coliseum. All were overcome with the sense of accomplishment and joy that their quest had succeeded. After a thousand years of fighting, the darkness was banished, and the suns burned brightly in the sky. All thoughts of the Makuta vanished in the throes of celebration. The Toa Nuva reunited with the Toa Inika. The Turaga of Mata Nui welcomed them home with great pride. The Av-matoran lingered with the other races, talking and laughing as if they were always acquainted. Other matoran cheered and danced and played music. Everything glowed with the warm light of life.

“This is what being a Toa-hero is all about!” Lewa exclaimed, wrapping an arm around Onua, who smiled in agreement.

“I’m just glad we’re all still in one piece,” Gali said, exchanging a smile with Tahu. Pohatu trapped Kopaka in a hug, lifting him in the air. Strangely enough, Kopaka returned it, and even laughed along with him.

“I knew I’d see you again,” Jaller said, punching Takanuva in the arm.

“Nothing in the world would stop me from coming back,” Takanuva replied, punching back.

Gali shushed them all, “Turaga Dume is about to speak.”

The wise old Turaga of Metru Nui stood up in the Turaga’s box, with the six Turaga of Mata Nui stationed behind him, overlooking the stadium full of matoran and Toa. Dume stepped up to the microphone, the stadium screens projected his face down on them all. For a moment, he seemed like he couldn’t speak, and none could blame him. When he found his voice, it was bursting with pride and emotion.

“One thousand years ago, Makuta Teridax struck down our beloved Great Spirit and put him in a seemingly endless sleep. But after years and years of fighting and struggling, we may now enjoy a new era of peace and prosperity! The ones we have to thank are these brave Toa you see before you today!”

The cheers were deafening, as all the Toa Nuva and Inika waved to the gathered matoran.

“And let us remember the ones who have fallen, the ones who fought for the liberation of the matoran race from the wrath and greed of the Makuta. Let us remember Toa Lhikan, Toa Matoro, and all those brave Toa and matoran and turaga that fought for peace, some of which we may never know. But we must hold their memories in our hearts for as long as we live. For we live, because of their sacrifices!”

More cheers filled the Coliseum.

“I’ve been never more proud to say that now the scourge of the Makuta is gone, and we no longer need to live in fear! And now, let us continue to move forward to our future!”

As Dume opened his mouth to speak again, a dark purple shadow swept across the sky, and the Coliseum was left in the dark. Cheers faded into panicked whispers.

“What’s going on?” Pohatu said. Tahu searched the sky for the stars, but before the eyes of everyone that lived, they began to rearrange into unfamiliar patterns. The clouds thickened, obscuring even those tiny pinpricks of light. A chill whipped through the gathered denizens of Metru Nui, and even Kopaka shivered.

“What is this?” Pohatu asked again. Nobody had any answers until a cold voice in the air around them began to laugh.

“Is that…?” Takanuva asked in a near whisper.

“No…” Onua said, his green eyes wide with fear.

The gathered matoran clung to each other for warmth and comfort. But there was none to be found. The Toa Nuva and Inika all withdrew their weapons.

“Makuta,” Tahu’s voice boomed through the Coliseum, “Show yourself! If you weren’t destroyed before, we’ll make sure it happens this time!”

_I have shown myself, puny Toa._

“What do you mean?” Gali shouted up to the sky.

_I am everywhere, for I am now your universe_.

“No, how can that be? What happened?” Onua said.

_When Mata Nui awoke, I was allowed a few precious moments to seize control of his body. I am your Great Spirit now._

“Then, this is why your brothers wanted us to succeed. This was The Plan!” Takanuva cried.

“What did you do to Mata Nui?” Tahu shouted, brandishing his weapon, “We’ve fought you before, we’ll fight you again!”

_Would you really fight the earth that holds you up? Or the air you breathe? Your beloved Mata Nui has been banished from this universe. I hope you enjoyed your fleeting moments of happiness, Toa, because those are the last you’ll ever know._

As the clouds thickened, and lightning cracked the sky, a wind of despair ripped through all that lived in the Matoran Universe. And now all they could hear was mocking laughter.


End file.
